Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had an important announcement to make yesterday regarding the impending start of the new school year. Despite the fact that most parts of the country are easing off on various pandemic restrictions that were in place over the past two and a half years, the District of Columbia will require all students age 12 and over to show proof of vaccination in order to attend classes. But the rules being imposed contain several bizarre caveats, along with a glaring omission in whatever planning went into this decision. The omission comes in the form of a fact that Bowser admitted to when questioned by reporters. The District no longer has any system in place to provide remote schooling for unvaccinated students. So unvaccinated children will effectively have no access to the public education system and will essentialy be left behind unless their parents can afford private schools or are capable of homeschooling them. And who will be most impacted by this rule? The Mayor is already being reminded that nearly half of the city’s Black students are unvaccinated. (Daily Signal)

The District of Columbia does not appear to have a contingency plan for unvaccinated students, who are banned from attending schools in person this fall after the first twenty days, according to comments made by Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Thursday.

During a press conference, Bowser, a Democrat, admitted there are no alternative options, including virtual learning, for students who cannot attend school due to the District’s vaccine mandate, meaning unvaccinated children will effectively be left without an education.

Over 40% of blacks ages 12-17 are not vaccinated, according to city data.

Further demonstrating the pointlessness of this mandate is the provision in the rules that allows twenty days from the beginning of classes for students to submit their vaccination passports. So even if the Mayor believes that unvaccinated children are some sort of danger to everyone else, they will be allowed to roam the halls and interact with the rest of the children for the better part of three weeks before being ejected from the public education system.

As most of the country has slowly and grudgingly admitted, children are the least likely to contract or transmit the COVID virus and the least likely to experience severe medical outcomes if they do. Most schools in America have done away with the six-foot spacing rules for desks in schools and the mask mandates have largely disappeared as well. But for some strange reason, the District of Columbia is going to boot nearly half of the Black student body above age 12 out, possibly ending their primary education in the process.

As we should all know by now, the media is addicted to the phrase “disproportionately impacting underserved communities.” That’s liberal code-speak for “minority communities.” No matter what the policy or condition is, this is the excuse that’s used for labeling anything and everything “racist.” So a policy such as the one Bowser is implementing is clearly racist, right?

Honestly, even in a world where we’ve become used to schools doing stupid or even dangerous things all over the United States, how did a policy such as this ever see the light of day? It’s not as if this is something brand new and everyone is still struggling to figure out the details. We began shutting down the schools (with disastrous results) as soon as the pandemic hit. Everyone had to rush to figure out how to set up distance learning, including the District of Columbia. What happened to that system in D.C. and how did nobody think to ensure that it would still be available this semester when talks of a vaccine mandate for the fall were brought up?

This goes far beyond simple incompetence. This is an assault on the fundamental rights of both students and parents, and one that will further damage the current generation. Bowser needs to either cancel this mandate (preferably) or get a remote learning plan in place immediately. If not, she should be removed from office by the voters as quickly as possible. This is simply inexcusable.