LAUSD Mandates Vaccinations for Eligible Students

Sarah Favot

Favot is an award-winning journalist and adjunct instructor at USC's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She previously was an investigative and data reporter at national education news site The 74 and local news site LA School Report. She's also worked at the Los Angeles Daily News. She was a Livingston Award finalist in 2011 and holds a Master's degree in journalism from Boston University and BA from the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

LAUSD Mandates Vaccinations for Eligible Students
Photo by Sarah Favot/ dot.LA

Los Angeles Unified School District students who are 12 or older must be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to return to campus next semester, the Board of Education voted Thursday.

The move makes LAUSD the first major school district in the nation to mandate vaccines for eligible students. Officials said 220,000 of the district's half million students are eligible to get the shots.

LAUSD's Daily Pass app

LAUSD's Daily Pass app

Under the measure, approved without dissent, student's vaccination records must be uploaded to the Daily Pass, an app Microsoft developed for the district that allows students to enter campus each day, before Jan. 10. Classes resume from the three-week winter break the following day. School district officials made the decision amid growing worry that the delta-fueled spread of COVID-19 could threaten to shut down in-person instruction after the district fully reopened schools in August. The same day President Biden announced sweeping rules to push tens of millions of Americans to vaccinate.

"We want to do everything possible to make sure that L.A. Unified doesn't end up on the long list of school districts that have had to re-close and go back to distance learning after welcoming students back this fall," school board member Nick Melvoin said. "Science is clear. The best way to avoid that happening is to make sure that everyone who can get a vaccine does."

It comes as child hospitalization rates have spiked nationally as the delta variant spreads.

U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention data cited by the district shows that pediatric hospitalization rates were five times higher in August compared to June and the rate among unvaccinated adolescents, aged 12 to 17, was 10 times higher than those who were fully vaccinated.


The district decided to go ahead with the move even though the Pfizer vaccine has not received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for those 12 to 15, although it has received federal emergency use authorization. It has been approved for those 16 and older. And full authorization for those children is expected in the coming weeks.

LAUSD has been lauded by some for implementing the country's strictest protocols among public schools. LAUSD requires all teachers and staff to be vaccinated, going further than the state which allows those who refuse to get the shots to take regular COVID-19 tests. LAUSD already requires COVID-19 testing, regardless of someone's vaccination status and masking both indoors and outdoors. But legal challenges have already been filed against the district.

A parent group called California Students United sued the district this spring over some of its protocols, including the weekly testing requirement. That lawsuit is still pending and more are expected.

A parent group called California Students United sued the district this spring over some of its protocols, including the weekly testing requirement. That lawsuit is still pending.

"The board has good intentions but is misguided about the real impact of this decision," said Negeen Ben-Cohen, who is part of that group. "This will definitely result in yet another significant decline in enrollment in the district. "

Culver City Unified School District was the first district in California to mandate vaccines for eligible students. It has given a deadline of Nov. 19 for students to receive the vaccine.

Under the LAUSD proposal, students who participate in in-person extracurricular activities must receive their shots more quickly. Students have less than a month to get their first shot before an Oct. 3 deadline and their second dose by Oct. 31.

The rest of the students 12 or older must receive their first dose by Nov. 21 and their second by Dec. 19, the Sunday after the fall semester ends.

Students who turn 12 must get their first dose by 30 days after their birthday and their second by eight weeks after. The mandate makes an exception for students with "qualified and approved exemptions and conditional admissions."

The district offers COVID-19 vaccinations at schools throughout the sprawling district.

School board President Kelly Gonez said the mandate is especially important for LAUSD where the majority of students are people of color or from low-income families that have been "devastated by the pandemic."

"We have felt the pain much greater in our L.A. Unified communities than other more affluent places," she said.

Case rates among children in California are lower than those nationally, mostly due to masking mandates and regular testing, experts say. California reported 18 new hospitalizations a day among children and teens as of Sept. 6, according to CDC data.

As of Wednesday night, the district reported 1,359 active COVID cases, with two of those cases linked to school-based transmission.

School board member Monica Garcia defended the district's decision to skeptical parents and others.

"There's a lot of feelings and a lot of concern and a lot of different experiences with COVID specifically to families that do have issues of trust with the government, with L.A. Unified, with the medical profession," she said. "I just want to acknowledge that this action is not about violating anybody's rights. This action is about doing our job to be able to offer public schools that children can come to school and be safe."

One school board member, Scott Schmerelson, recused himself from the vote because of a conflict of interest due to his stock in Pfizer.

Jenna Schwartz, co-founder of parent group Parents Supporting Teachers, told the school board the vaccine mandate for eligible students was a "step in the right direction," but encouraged the district to implement a targeted educational campaign on vaccine safety.

"It's much easier for a parent to look on social media or talk to a friend than it is to access primary sources and that is how we have ended up with a lifesaving vaccine as a polarizing political issue," she said.

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How the 'Thrift Haul' Trend Boosted the Secondhand Ecommerce

Lon Harris
Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
How the 'Thrift Haul' Trend Boosted the Secondhand Ecommerce
Evan Xie

If you can believe it, it’s been more than a decade since rapper Macklemore extolled the virtues of thrift shopping in a viral music video. But while scouring the ranks of vintage clothing stores looking for the ultimate come-up may have waned in popularity since 2012, the online version of this activity is apparently thriving.

According to a new trend story from CNBC, interest in “reselling” platforms like Etsy-owned Depop and Poshmark has exploded in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. In an article that spends a frankly surprising amount of time focused on sellers receiving death threats before concluding that they’re “not the norm,” the network cites the usual belt-tightening ecommerce suspects – housebound individuals doing more of their shopping online coupled with inflation woes and recession fears – as the causes behind the uptick.

As for data, there’s a survey from Depop themselves, finding that 53% of respondents in the UK are more inclined to shop secondhand as living costs continue to rise. Additional research from Advance Market Analytics confirms the trend, citing not just increased demand for cheap clothes but the pressing need for a sustainable alternative to recycling clothing materials at its core.

The major popularity of “thrift haul” videos across social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok has also boosted the visibility of vintage clothes shopping and hunting for buried treasures. Teenage TikToker Jacklyn Wells scores millions of views on her thrift haul videos, only to get routinely mass-accused of greed for ratching up the Depop resell prices for her coolest finds and discoveries. Nonetheless, viral clips like Wells’ have helped to embed secondhand shopping apps more generally within online fashion culture. Fashion and beauty magazine Hunger now features a regular list of the hottest items on the re-sale market, with a focus on how to use them to recreate hot runway looks.

As with a lot of consumer and technology trends, the sudden surge of interest in second-hand clothing retailers was only partly organic. According to The Drum, ecommerce apps Vinted, eBay, and Depop have collectively spent around $120 million on advertising throughout the last few years, promoting the recent vintage shopping boom and helping to normalize second-hand shopping. This includes conventional advertising, of course, but also deals with online influencers to post content like “thrift haul” videos, along with shoutouts for where to track down the best finds.

Reselling platforms have naturally responded to the increase in visibility with new features (as well as a predictable hike in transaction fees). Poshmark recently introduced livestreamed “Posh Shows” during which sellers can host auctions or provide deeper insight into their inventory. Depop, meanwhile, has introduced a “Make Offer” option to fully integrate the bartering and negotiation process into the app, rather than forcing buyers and sellers to text or Direct Message one another elsewhere. (The platform formerly had a comments section on product pages, but shut this option down after finding that it led to arguments, and wasn’t particularly helpful in making purchase decisions.)

Now that it’s clear there’s money to be made in online thrift stores, larger and more established brands and retailers are also pushing their way into the space. H&M and Target have both partnered with online thrift store ThredUp on featured collections of previously-worn clothing. A new “curated” resale collection from Tommy Hilfiger – featuring minorly damaged items that were returned to its retail stores – was developed and promoted through a partnership with Depop, which has also teamed with Kellogg’s on a line of Pop-Tarts-inspired wear. J.Crew is even bringing back its classic ‘80s Rollneck Sweater in a nod to the renewed interest in all things vintage.

Still, with any surge of popularity and visibility, there must also come an accompanying backlash. In a sharp editorial this week for Arizona University’s Daily Wildcat, thrift shopping enthusiast Luke Lawson makes the case that sites like Depop are “gentrifying fashion,” stripping communities of local thrift stores that provide a valuable public service, particularly for members of low-income communities. As well, UK tabloids are routinely filled with secondhand shopping horror stories these days, another evidence point as to their increased visibility among British consumers specifically, not to mention the general dangers of buying personal items from strangers you met over the internet. - Lon Harris

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Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

How to Startup: Mission Acquisition

Numbers don’t lie, but often they don’t tell the whole story. If you look at the facts and figures alone, launching a startup seems like a daunting enterprise. It seems like a miracle anyone makes it out the other side.

  • 90% of startups around the world fail.
  • On average, it takes startups 2-3 years to turn a profit. (Venture funded startups take far longer.)
  • Post-seed round, fewer than 10% of startups go on to successfully raise a Series A investment.
  • Less than 1% of startups go public.
  • A startup only has a .00006% chance of becoming a unicorn.

Ouch.

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Spencer Rascoff

Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

Bill Gurley in a blue suit
Bill Gurley

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