Ms. Calleja,

Thank you for the comment from the rational people of Virginia.  I love that we all live in America and have the freedom to all express our opinions.

I also appreciate that you are concerned for the education and health of your children.  I am a teacher, and it is difficult to have students out for a week at a time to quarantine when exposed to covid.  Although already this year it is a huge improvement from last year.

This being said, I also have an opinion.  We must follow the science. So far science and experience has shown us that even when students are vaccinated, they are still able to contract and spread covid.  They are not as likely to contract it, but just as likely to spread it when they do.  This would mean that whether or not students are vaccinated, the mask and quarantine rules should still apply to all students.  The vaccinations have been shown to deter serious illness and death.  Most covid infections in vaccinated people are symptomatic and these students are not even aware that they are actively ill and spreading covid to others.  

If we follow the logical conclusions to this science, we would need to assume that the vaccinated students not only pose an equal threat to the other students, but pose and even greater threat in that they will be exposing more students being asymptomatic.  Thus the students who are not vaccinated actually pose less of a threat to the general population because as they become ill, they have symptoms that prompt them to stay home and not spread the illness.  

It's time to start following the science and admit that people who are vaccinated are only protecting themselves and not others.  And those who are vaccinated need to stop pretending that they are in danger from the 'irrational unvaccinated.'  If the vaccine that you wish to impose on other people is so great, why is it that the vaccinated population is fighting so hard to make everyone conform to their science.  They are already protected.  And if they are still so worried about covid touching them and their children, then the vaccine that they are propagating must not be a grand as they proclaim.

You can't have it both ways.  Either it works and you are protected, or it definitely helps but doesn't solve the problem. Please don't force your scientific opinions on others. This is America, where the people are still intelligent enough to evaluate the science that is given and reason as to what is best for them and their family.  The vaccine is great for your family, and I am glad for that measure of assurance for you. But, as I don't have the right to control your choices for your family, you shouldn't have the right to control other families choices.

Mandating a vaccine that doesn't stop the spread of covid will only have the effect of barring children from an education.  That is discrimination at its worst.

Please stop treating the people of Virginia as idiots assuming that they don't want the best for all students, including their own. Parents should be the ones who choose what it medically best for their children, this includes whether to vaccinate them or not.  The government does not and should not have this right.

Especially at private schools where parents choose to put their children.  They have a right to education and should be able to choose a school according to their policies.  If the state doesn't fund the school, they should not be able to dictate the policies.