What Will The School Year Look Like With The Delta Variant?

Across the country schools are requiring students to be fully vaccinated before being allowed to return to, ideally, a normal classroom schedule and setting this coming fall. Schools are allowing students to be exempt from this rule due to medical or religious reasons, but that’s only a small portion of the country. Many students and even parents are against this policy and some are even refusing to go back to school with this new mandate. Is this fair to the children, or is this what should happen to slow the spread of the virus?

With the new Delta variant beginning to take over the world, fully vaccinated individuals are still testing positive, as the vaccine is not immune to the Delta variant. A good example of this is athletes that were qualified to go to the Olympics this year, but had no symptoms and tested positive. The NFL is also fining unvaccinated players over $14,000 a day per COVID violation protocol. Both schools and the NFL are receiving push back due to these demands.

In a world where it’s our choice to do what we want and makes us feel comfortable, some people are feeling that we are having that ripped away from us day by day. Other organizations are going to follow along with these demands, and I think we are going to see people losing their jobs over being unvaccinated. We have seen this in the NFL, the Minnesota Vikings fired an assistant coach for refusing to get the vaccine. People should have the choice to do what is right for them and what makes them feel comfortable.

The fact that this is making kids drop out of school, although it’s not many, it’s still happening. In America, it’s pretty hard to be successful without higher education, and this is deterring people from attending college. It seems a little backwards, but in the bigger picture, it’s an attempt to keep the greater good safe while sacrificing individual freedom.

School’s may look to continue a hybrid style school format to include everyone, especially considering the surge in cases and the Delta variant. This would allow students who don’t feel safe attending class, to feel safe at home while still getting the same education that those who attend classes in person will get. This will also allow students who refuse to get vaccinated to go to school without any repercussions.