School accused of creating ‘VIP seating’ for vaccinated students

In an email sent to families on January 14th, the dean of Cedar River Elementary wrote about creating VIP seating for vaccinated students.

The email, which has since gone viral, says, “We are fortunate to have a designated lunchroom, however space is limited, so we are getting creative to keep kids safe and on campus. We are utilizing VIP seating to ensure fully vaccinated students who are close contacts have the ability to stay safe, while also giving them an added privilege of recognizing other students doing the right thing by handing out Otter Paws.”

According to the Post Millennial, the email was quickly removed from the school website as furious parents and community members received the email. This Washington state school received a lot of criticism from parents who called the VIP seating for vaccinated students “exclusivity” and “segregation.”

Four days after the email was sent out, Tahoma School District spokesman AJ Garcia stated that the program was based on “the latest Washington State Department of Health K-12 requirements provided updated guidance for schools when students are identified as close contacts. Our Cedar River team was using that guidance for their cafeteria structure.”

Garcia continued, “The way the updated requirements were implemented at Cedar River, students who were recently identified as close contacts needed to remain at least 6 feet apart from others if they had their masks off during lunch. These students who were identified as close contacts are the ones who Cedar River placed in the ‘VIP’ seating area. It was not determined by vaccination status. Those students were also not publicly identified as close contacts.”