Miami private school orders vaccinated students to stay at home for 30 days as ‘precautionary measure’

A private school in Florida will require vaccinated students to stay home for 30 days after each COVID-19 vaccination dose they receive. 

“Because of the potential impact on other students and our school community, vaccinated students will need to stay at home for 30 days post-vaccination for each dose and booster they receive and may return to school after 30 days as long as the student is healthy and symptom-free,” said a letter sent last week to parents at Centner Academy in Miami said, according to WSVN, a local television station.

The letter suggested that parents consider vaccinating their children in the summer “when there will be time for the potential transmission or shedding onto others to decrease.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has quashed misleading claims that vaccines against COVID-19 may make recipients spreaders of the virus.  

“Vaccine shedding is the term used to describe the release or discharge of any of the vaccine components in or outside of the body. Vaccine shedding can only occur when a vaccine contains a weakened version of the virus,” the CDC’s website said. “None of the vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. contain a live virus.”

In a statement to The Washington Post, David Centner, one of the school’s founders, said that the decision was a “precautionary measure” based on “numerous anecdotal cases that have been in circulation.”

The same school has a history of spreading inaccurate vaccine information and received attention in April when it asked teachers to hold off on getting their COVID-19 shots. 

“We’re not telling teachers that they can’t get [the vaccine], we’re just simply asking that they hold off a little bit,” Joshua Hills, a parent and Centner Academy employee, said at the time, per WSVN.

“We’re not anti-vaxxers, we’re in favor of safe vaccines,” Hills added to WSVN. “Are these vaccines, is this injection 100 percent safe? As a parent of two children that go to this school, I’m not willing to take the chance on a question mark.”

The seven-day daily COVID-19 case average in Florida stood at 2,600 cases as of Sunday, as the state’s leadership remains opposed to vaccine mandates. 

Just last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) vowed to sue the Biden administration over its employer vaccine mandate.

“Let’s not have Biden come in and effectively take away — threaten to take away — the jobs of people who have been working hard throughout this entire pandemic,” DeSantis said at a press conference last week. 

When asked for comment on the matter, DeSantis’s Press Secretary Christina Pushaw referenced a Florida law that says “businesses and government entities are prohibited from requiring COVID-19 vaccine passports as a condition of entry or service.”

The Hill has reached out to the Centner Academy and DeSantis for comment.