TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — The Leon Classroom Teachers’ Association is weighing potential impacts to Tallahassee schools after Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced the state’s goal to eliminate all childhood mandated vaccines on Wednesday.
- Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo says the state will rid of all childhood vaccine mandates, which supports Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push for “medical freedom.”
- Education groups like the Florida Education Association say getting rid of vaccine requirements will make schools unsafe.
- Watch the video to hear what impacts a former educator believes it will have on teachers and students.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Kids will no longer have to get their measles, polio, tetanus or chicken pox vaccines to attend school.
At least, that’s the goal for the State as it looks to phase out all mandated vaccines.
“The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governo,r is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law,” Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced Wednesday.
ABC 27 talked with President of Leon Classroom Teachers’ Association Scott Mazur, who says it will have impacts to local schools across the state.
“How is it that our students are going to be able to focus on what they're supposed to be learning? How is it that our teachers are going to be able to focus when any time there's an outbreak or something?” he said.
Ladapo announced the change during a news conference in Valrico.
“All of them. All of them,” he said repeatedly during the conference.
It’s what Governor Ron DeSantis calls “medical freedom.”
“You know, I think that you should not ever be discriminated against, regardless of your, of these choices,” DeSantis said during the conference.
But Mazur believes it will only pose health risks to students and draw away teachers.
“It seems like it's calculated to create even more of a teacher crisis here in the state, staff crisis, attacks on public schools. Why is it that we're trying to weaken our public schools?” he said.
The Florida Education Association released a statement.
It says “pulling back vaccines” will “disrupt learning and make schools less safe,” asking if Florida leaders are about “keeping kids safe” or “playing politics.”
Read full context of statement below. Full press release is available here.
When leaders talk about pulling back vaccines, they’re talking about disrupting student learning and making schools less safe. State leaders say they care about reducing chronic absenteeism and keeping kids in school—but reducing vaccinations does the opposite, putting our children’s health and education at risk.
Florida leaders claim to care about students but silence experts and take actions that make schools less safe. They claim to care about educators but refuse to pay them fairly. They claim to care about communities but put profit ahead of people at every turn. So, the question is: Is this really about keeping students safe, or is this simply about playing politics?
“Now, on the commission, you know, we're going to tackle, you know, everything that people are concerned about,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also vowed to establish a “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) commission for the state.
It’s an initiative Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is pushing at the federal level.
According to the HHS website, the action is meant to “reform America’s food, health, and scientific systems to identify the root cause of the chronic disease epidemic.”
There doesn’t seem to be a timeline of when these vaccine mandates will be phased out, but the FEA says they will continue monitoring potential impacts to schools and communities.
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