GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - A campaign across the State of California, taking advantage of social media platforms to spread the message, urged parents to allow their students, and invited all other faculty at schools, to refrain from attending school on Monday, October 18^th, in what is known as Sick-Out Day, to show solidarity and peacefully protest the vaccine mandate.

California was the first State in the Nation to put in place a mask mandate for schools, and now is the first State to require children to be vaccinated for in-person learning beginning the term following full FDA approval of the vaccine for their grade range, 7-12 and K-6. (https://www.gov.ca.gov/2021/10/01/california-becomes-first-state-in-nation-to-announce-covid-19-vaccine-requirements-for-schools/).

On Monday, parents, students, teachers and more rallied together and gathered at the California State Capitol in Sacramento to take a stand against the mandatory vaccination policy. Others assembled in their hometowns and Gridley was no exception.

A group on Facebook, Gridley/Biggs Parents for Freedom-Community Against Mandate, helped organize those who felt strongly about the vaccine mandate and together, they assembled along Gridley’s Hwy-99 at the Heritage Oak Shopping Center, holding signs and flags expressing their feelings. Some read, “I am not a lab rat!” others, “Mama says she decides,” or “My Child, My Choice”"'just to highlight a few.

Mother, Tarrah Egan who was at the gathering says, “I’ve tried to stay kind of neutral and see both sides, but when it comes to forcing an experimental vaccine on children, that’s where I draw the line.” We spoke to her son, Ty Egan, and asked him how he felt about the vaccine mandate. He said, he felt “Not very…good. Because I’m not anti-vaccine. I’m anti-someone trying to force us to take a vaccine.”

For most present at the demonstration, that was the sentiment. It was not the necessarily the vaccine itself that they had a problem with, it was the fact that they had lost their right to choose whether to get the vaccine or abstain. This was a very passionate subject for all present.

One of the founders of the group Gridley/Biggs Parents for Freedom-Community Against Mandate, Sarah Martin, (also formed by Holly Wood, and Alissa Crislip) said, “I am a parent of four in the Gridley School District and we feel so strongly about giving parents a voice. And it should be our decision, ultimately. That’s mainly what we are fighting for. I’m not against vaccines themselves, I’m against them being mandated for our families and for our children.”