A bipartisan coalition of Big Apple lawmakers is demanding the city lift a controversial pandemic-era mandate prohibiting unvaccinated parents from attending events at public schools.
In a letter Thursday to Department of Education Chancellor David Banks and Health Department Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, the City Council’s Common Sense Caucus said the time it right to end the nearly three-year-old mandate considering the DOE’s recent “bold step into the post-COVID-19 world” to shut down its coronavirus command center.
“In order to keep taking steps towards post-pandemic normalcy, we must continue to lift the barriers put in place during the height of outbreak – barriers that we now know may have been of limited actual effectiveness,” wrote Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) of behalf on the caucus.
“For three long school years, unvaccinated parents have been prevented from attending functions at facilities operated by the…DOE. These people have been forced to miss plays, proms, graduations, and sporting events, adding to the stresses felt by students and families who were already enduring the difficulties of receiving an education during a global pandemic.”
“As the DOE recognizes the declining danger COVID-19 presents to New York’s school children – as made evident by their closure of the COVID command center – it must also acknowledge that unvaccinated persons no longer pose an extraordinary risk to others as well,” said Ariola.
Messages left Saturday with the DOE, Health Department and Mayor’s Office were not returned.