COLUMBUS, Ohio — A bill introduced by a Republican lawmaker in Ohio would prohibit schools from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, one that does not currently exist and legally wouldn’t be able to take place in public institutions anyway.
The pandemic divided Ohioans and exacerbated an already growing movement against vaccinations. “I don’t think anybody should lose their job because what we put into our bodies should be our choice,” Northeast Ohio mom Amy Martinez said. Martinez and her kids are all unvaccinated — for not just COVID, but all education-required vaccines like MMR. To her, vaccine mandates are an infringement on personal freedom.
“No institution or governmental institution or employer should be able to tell us what we should or should not put into our bodies,” she said. She is a registered Republican and had supported a similar yet much more strict bill that was being heard in 2021. That bill never passed. Damon Buckwalter and his kids are all vaccinated. He believes Ohioans need to stop treating mandates like they are a new phenomenon.