Miami Private School Requires Students to Stay Home 30 Days After Getting COVID-19 Vaccine

Centner Academy students playing on the playground. Screenshot via The Epoch Times/Courtesy of Centner Academy

A Miami private school is requiring students to stay home for 30 days after they receive each dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Centner Academy, a private school for kids from pre-K to 8th grade, has a medical freedom policy on immunizations.

“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,” reads a letter sent to students’ parents recently, according to WSVN, a Fox-affiliated local TV station.

In the letter, the school urged parents considering COVID-19 vaccines for their kids to hold off until 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 said that currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines won’t shed or release the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Virus, also known as novel coronavirus.

“Vaccine shedding can only occur when a vaccine contains a weakened version of the virus. None of the vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. contain a live virus,” the CDC stated on its website. “mRNA and viral vector vaccines are the two types of currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines available.”

Currently, only Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was authorized for children 12 years and above under emergency use authorization.

In an email to The Epoch Times, the school’s co-founder David Centner said the policy was enacted as “a prudent precautionary measure after much thoughtful deliberation.”

“To be clear, the school leadership does not believe that one who is vaccinated can infect another person with COVID,” Centner said. “Further, the school is not opining on whether a vaccinated person can negatively impact others. However, due to voluminous anecdotal reports in circulation on this latter topic, we must err on the side of caution when making decisions that may impact the health of the school community.”

“Until there are definitive and scientifically proven studies that refute these reports, we need to do what is best for our students and staff,” Centner continued, saying the school’s top priorities have always been the students’ well-being and their “sense of safety within our educational environment.”

In April, Centner Academy said employees who got the vaccine would not be allowed to return to work, WSVN reported. Later it was clarified that teachers and employees would not be fired for COVID-19 vaccination, but they wouldn’t be allowed to work with students.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is one of those governors who fiercely oppose the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Last month, DeSantis said that local governments forcing vaccine mandates would face fines of $5,000 per violation when a state anti-vaccine passport law came into effect on Sept. 16.

“We’re looking at all legal options to protect the rights of employees, and Governor DeSantis encourages business owners to respect their employees’ rights to medical privacy,” DeSantis’s press secretary told The Epoch Times via email at the time.

Petr Svab contributed to this report.