Ashland HS student creates petition for student vaccine mandate

ASHLAND, Ore. —An Ashland High School student is starting a petition to require students to get vaccinated, against COVID-19 in the school district.  As we’ve seen in many walks of our society, people remain divided on the idea of mandating the COVID-19 vaccine.

A petition is circling around the Ashland High School campus. Student Luke Seeley created it in hopes of getting his school district to implement a vaccine mandate for all students. And it’s capturing the attention of many in the school.

“It was a very fast-spreading thing,” said student Eden Thomspon.

The petition says, “masks and social distancing on their own are not enough to ensure the safety of staff, students, and the rest of the public.”

Right now the CDC says the vaccine is available to everyone 12 years and older.

We are not aware of any public high school in the state implementing it as a requirement for students. But it is happening in some districts nationally. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the nation, has mandated the vaccine for students.

“I was sitting in a circle of friends and they were like did you sign the petition?” said another student, Brooklyn Williams.

The petition continues to circle throughout campus, I’ve spoken with students who are for it and against it.

“I saw that it was happening and I was like oh my gosh its something that I totally agree with so as soon as I found that out, I logged in out of the many links I saw, put in my email, super easy, super quick, I hope it does something,” said Williams

But not all students feel the same way.

“I will not sign it I don’t believe that we should be forcing people to do something that they don’t want to do especially when it comes to making a choice like taking a vaccine,” said student Giovanni Navarrette.

Seeley, the petitions creator, hopes to get 1,000 signatures. As of Thursday, it had received over 600 signatures.

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Jenna King is the 6pm and 11pm anchor for NBC5 News. Jenna is a Burbank, CA native. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and a minor in Sports Business. During her time at Oregon she was part of the student-run television station, Duck TV. She also grew her passion for sports through her internship with the PAC 12 Network. When Jenna is not in the newsroom you can find her rooting for her hometown Dodgers, exploring the outdoors or binging on the latest Netflix release.
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