Now Florida School Won't Make Vaccinated Kids Stay Home

Update: After attracting plenty of press over its announcement that students would need to stay home from school for 30 days after each COVID-vaccine dose they receive, Miami's Centner Academy has changed course. CNN reports the school did away with the requirement after the Florida Department of Education let it know on Thursday that it would be investigating the plan. The following day, the school's COO said that its announcement failed to mention that the school planned to pair the requirement with a remote learning option, but that regardless, "we will not pursue any such measures" regarding a post-vaccination quarantine. Our story from Oct. 17 follows:

The Florida private school that's been making headlines for months regarding its anti-vaccination stance is making headlines yet again. The latest from Miami's Centner Academy: Students who get vaccinated against COVID-19 must stay home from school for 30 days after each dose, WSVN reports. After that time, they can return to class provided they are "healthy and symptom-free," reads a letter recently sent to parents from the school's Chief Operating Officer. It suggests that parents hold off on vaccinating their kids until summer, "when there will be time for the potential transmission or shedding onto others to decrease."

The preschool-8th grade establishment, which can cost more than $30,000 per year in tuition and fees, first made waves when it warned its teachers not to get vaccinated because, the school falsely claimed, vaccinated people "transmit" something from their bodies that causes "adverse reproductive issues" in others they are near. (That claim, as well as any claims of "transmission or shedding," are not based in fact.) The school later found itself in the news again after a teacher warned students not to hug their vaccinated parents for more than five seconds because it was dangerous. The school's vaccine policy, posted on its website, implies that mandatory vaccinations could be behind increased rates of attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, asthma, diabetes, and autism in children. (More Florida stories.)