A school district in blue, lockdown, vaccine mandate California is defying Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mandate to force all school employees and students vaccinated for COVID-19 because taxpaying parents are objecting.

Board members at the Oakdale Joint Unified School District board passed a resolution earlier this month declaring the district’s nine schools won’t prevent students or staff members from having the option to attend school in-person based on COVID-19 vaccine status.

According to The Daily Wire:

The resolution also urged California lawmakers to make the vaccine mandate a recommendation rather than a requirement for students, faculty, and staff members.

The text of the resolution noted the governing board is aware “that many parents have concerns about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine and believes that parental choice regarding health decisions is absolutely essential.”

The board also noted its plans to “petition the State of California that the COVID-19 Vaccine be a recommendation and not a requirement for students and staff.”

The district says it is continuing to monitor the situation and pass along its coronavirus case info and resorts via the school’s website as well as other forms of communication with teachers, staff, students, and parents. For the fall semester thus far, the school recorded 377 positive virus cases among 5,809 people, or 6 percent through half of the academic year.

Newsom first announced a statewide COVID vaccine mandate for all public and private schools in early October.

“The state already requires that students are vaccinated against viruses that cause measles, mumps, and rubella – there’s no reason why we wouldn’t do the same for COVID-19. Today’s measure, just like our first-in-the-nation school masking and staff vaccination requirements, is about protecting our children and school staff, and keeping them in the classroom,” he said on October 1.

“Vaccines work. It’s why California leads the country in preventing school closures and has the lowest case rates. We encourage other states to follow our lead to keep our kids safe and prevent the spread of COVID-19,” he noted further.

In August, Newsom announced that California would become “the first state to require all K-12th grade public and private school teachers and staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19,” the outlet continued.

“This Order, consistent with this recommendation, requires verification of vaccination status among eligible K-12 school workers, and establishes diagnostic screening testing of unvaccinated workers to minimize the risk that they will transmit while on K-12 school campuses, where a majority of students are not vaccinated and younger students are not yet eligible for vaccines,” Newsom noted in an Aug. 11 statement.

But in fact, the Oakdale district is not the only one in the state that has concerns about Newsom’s vaccine mandate. A statement from Stanislaus County Superintendent of Schools Scott Kuykendall was quoted by Fox 40 on Tuesday in which he encouraged the Democrat-run state legislature to take the lead regarding vaccine mandates rather than rely on executive actions:

In reality, for more than 100 years vaccine mandates for infectious diseases including polio, measles, and chickenpox have always come from state legislation: not executive orders, not local, state, or federal health orders, and not from school districts.

Until we have long-term studies and better answers to questions, including appropriate vaccine dosage for younger children and the effectiveness of natural immunity, California needs to “pump the brakes” on mandating vaccinations and leave the decision up to parents and pediatricians who are best suited to make this decision.

Earlier this month, Newsom also announced a statewide indoor mask mandate regardless of vaccination status, but as the Daily Wire reported, many residents are ignoring the requirement because they are so over ‘COVID’:

A growing number of Californians are ignoring Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide indoor mask mandate that went into effect on Wednesday as residents push back against the new restriction.

Model and podcaster Jessica Vaughn tweeted, “Insider secret: At a party at a public bar in Hollywood, CA with the pretties. Not a mask in sight. You’re being hustled to use federal funds to make the changes to the nation they always wanted but couldn’t legally legislate.”