[ad_1]
The city Department of Education’s extracurricular vaccine mandate could soon be relaxed — just in time for prom.
Chancellor David Banks hinted as much at a recent meeting of a school district advisory board.
“I think there will be some other announcements that will be made in the coming days regarding students who are unvaccinated going to the prom and things like that,” he told the Upper West Side’s Community Education Council 3 on Wednesday.
“I don’t want anyone to have to be limited due to vaccination status,” Banks said. “We may be on the other side, now, of this disease.”
He was responding to a question from Helen Qiu, who said about 27 percent of students in the district weren’t vaccinated and asked whether the policy could be changed.
Those students are currently barred from “high-risk” sports (including bowling), plus outings like museum trips and, of course, prom.
Vincent Hazan, 17, a senior at Fort Hamilton High School, hopes the rules change so he can take his girlfriend of a little over a year, Elizabeth Oliveri-DiSalvio, 15.
“I only get one high school prom. I’m not going to be with all of my friends for a while after [graduation],” he told The Post. “It’s unfair to her, it’s unfair to me.
“It doesn’t make sense that I can go to school five days a week, seven hours a day, and participate in most after school co-curricular activities, but I can’t do extracurricular activities,” the Eagle Scout said.
Hazan also bristled at Adams’ recent exemption of athletes and performers from the employment vaccine mandate.
“It’s unfair that celebrities can do what they want to do — for some reason it seems like they have a higher level of humanity than we do.”
Proms are generally held in May. Banks noted the final decision is in Mayor Eric Adams’ hands.
A City Hall rep said in a statement: “DOE and DOHMH will monitor the numbers and make further announcements as we get closer to prom season.”
[ad_2]