LAUSD agrees in settlement to not appeal ruling in challenge to student COVID vaccine mandate

LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Some 2 1/2 months after a judge ruled in favor of the father of a 12-year-old who challenged the Los Angeles Unified School District's student coronavirus vaccine mandate -- finding that the resolution approving the directive clashes with state law -- the parties have announced a settlement in which the district will not appeal the ruling.

The accord was announced in court papers filed by the district on Wednesday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff.

On July 5, Beckloff, who had taken the case under submission, reversed a tentative ruling he issued three months earlier in which he said he was initially inclined to find in favor of the LAUSD in the case brought by the father, who is identified in court papers only as G.F. and his son as D.F.

A judge has ruled in favor of the father of a 12-year-old student who filed a lawsuit challenging the Los Angeles Unified School District's student COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

G.F. filed the case last Oct. 8 on behalf of himself and his son, a Science Academy STEM Magnet school student. G.F. maintained the state and not the LAUSD is authorized to issue vaccination mandates and that the district's requirement that unvaccinated pupils 12 years old and over attend independent learning classes outside campus violates the state education code.

Beckloff wrote that while the Board of Education's authority is "great," it is not unlimited. He found that the student vaccine resolution approved Sept. 9, 2021, conflicts with state law and clashes with the state Health and Safety Code by not allowing exemptions for personal beliefs.

"While LAUSD argues the court's ruling should apply to D.F. only, the court finds no justification for such a limitation given the board's lack of authority to adopt the resolution," Beckloff wrote.

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