California School Bribes Boy to Get COVID Vaccine and Not Tell His Parents

A 13-year-old boy was bribed with pizza from his school to get a COVID-19 vaccine without parental consent, reports NBC Los Angeles. According to the report, the school not only gave the minor child the vaccine without parental consent but instructed the boy not to tell his parents. 

The boy, a student at the aptly named Barack Obama Global Prep Academy in South Los Angeles, came home with a vaccine card and told his mother he accepted the shot after being offered free pizza. 

“It hurt to know he got a shot without my permission, without knowing and without signing any papers for him to get the shot,” Maribel Duarte, the boy’s mother, told NBC Los Angeles. 

She also reported that the woman who administered the shot told him, “Please don’t say anything. I don’t want to get in trouble.” 

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) mandated that all eligible students be vaccinated by Jan. 10 or be required to go back to virtual learning. LAUSD says that 80% of eligible students were vaccinated as of Thanksgiving break. Two lawsuits against LAUSD over its mandate are making their way through the courts. However, minors still cannot legally consent to vaccination. 

Kids are overwhelmingly safe from COVID and are even better protected from it than fully vaccinated adults. The mandate itself was excessive, but the effort by the school to vaccinate kids without parent consent, especially given the risk of adverse side effects, is a huge violation of parental rights.