SCSU Student Fights Vax Policy

Chloe Knopf was excited she could finally begin courses for the master’s program for Speech Language Pathology at Southern Connecticut State University without reservations. Earlier this spring, finally SCSU lifted its mandate for Covid-19 shots for students.

From April 4th, 2022:

Vaccination Policy

• Vaccines are no longer mandated for students or employees.  However, individuals are encouraged to be vaccinated and to get booster shots.
• Note: students in clinical or other practicum/internship sites may be required to be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing based on the rules of those employers. Complying with these requirements is the responsibility of the student and should be discussed with the program directors on campus.

It’s the second bullet point that Knopf argues is unfair, considering her desired field, Speech Language Pathology. “They want me to get the Covid shot because of clinical settings and ‘at risk populations’ but my field is kinda weird, it’s not like traditional health fields where I’d be working in hospitals. Most of my work is around kids; kids have statistically almost ZERO risk of dying from Covid. It makes no sense for a shot mandate for that.

I’m not treating patients as a traditional doctor or nurse and I’m not doing any invasive treatment whatsoever that involves physical contact with the patient.”

She found she was accepted to the program on March 15th; then on April 29th, she called the Associate Dean of Graduate Enrollment Management, who was unaware of the continued mandate. The associate dean of Communications Disorders mentioned it wasn’t just hospitals mandating the shot, but the university as well.

Chloe also belongs to a campus group called Young Americans For Liberty. Anthony Pecoraro, chair of the CT chapter of YAL, led a drive to end the Covid 19 shot mandate at Sacred Heart University in March of 2022. The group emphasizes the right of the individual supercedes collective desires.

For the time being, the petition to do away with all shot mandates at SCSU is being updated. Chloe plans on at least one semester of her master’s at a community college because of SCSU’s mandate. She says if SCSU refuses to lift its shot mandate by fall 2023, she will transfer to a different college.

We reached out to SCSU for justification of the mandate; they did not respond as of press time.

Chloe’s petition:

Hi there! My name is Chloë Knopf and I am a young conservative from Avon, CT (as well as a member of Young Americans for Liberty). Despite being accepted into Southern Connecticut State University’s Master’s in Speech Language Pathology program, I am barred from attending because I am unvaccinated.

If you haven’t signed this petition already, would you please help me and sign this petition to preserve medical freedom for SCSU students in the SLP and Nursing programs?

http://yaliberty.org/freescsu

Thank you so much,

Chloë from Avon, Connecticut