Citing a tip from a student, Young America’s Foundation Monday morning reported that Emory & Henry College in Virginia will require students to wear special lanyards designating their COVID-19 vaccination status.
“After listening to voices desiring a safe return to a more normal campus environment and using the date available to us regarding COVID-19 vaccination rates, the campus has decided that having a visible showing those who are vaccinated is the best route for our campus,” Dean of Students Tracey Wright said in an email to students. “Therefore, we are providing all who are fully vaccinated with a special lanyard that must be worn on campus.”
The email continues, noting that the vaccination lanyard “allows everyone an easy way to discern who should be wearing a mask and physically distance themselves from others.”
Students will be required to submit documentation to the school proving their vaccination status. The email instructed student on campus during the summer to submit that documentation right away, and pick up their lanyards.
“All of us, myself included, who are fully vaccinated, but forget our lanyards are also required to wear a mask and physically distance,” Wright said in the email.
Virginia’s mask mandate was lifted on May 28, except for on public transit, in healthcare facilities, and in K-12 schools. As of May 14, the state said that 63 percent of adults had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Many states have taken aim at so-called “vaccine passports,” designations that allow businesses or other establishments to require proof of vaccination. Those states claim that forcing people to prove their vaccination status is a privacy violation.
The Virginia Star reached out to several administrators at Emory & Henry to find out if the school requires proof of other vaccines, like for the measles, mumps, or smallpox.
No one from the school returned the comment requests.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Emory & Henry College” by chucka_nc CC2.0 and “Lanyard” is by Andrew CC2.0.
