Top 10 Stories from January 2021: Presidential Election and COVID Vaccine Mandates
Between the coronavirus vaccine rollout and the inauguration of a new president, January was a busy month for many, including campus safety professionals.
As we forge ahead into the unknown territory of 2021 with many lessons learned from 2020, the world is continuing its battle against the coronavirus and the United States is dealing with the changes that come with the election of a new president. Not surprisingly, the most common theme among the most read Campus Safety articles from January 2021 is the presidential election and inauguration.
Making the list were articles related to the siege on the U.S. Capitol, subsequent threats against a wide variety of entities, including schools, and the signing of an executive order by President Joe Biden that prevents discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The latter will have a significant impact on K-12 schools and college campuses, which explains its top placement in last month’s stories.
Another article surrounding a controversial topic that made the list was the decision made by the Los Angeles Unified School District to require K-12 students to get the COVID-19 vaccine before returning to school once it becomes available to children.
It’ll be interesting to see if that requirement sticks. Back in August, Massachusetts public health officials announced that the flu vaccine would be required for all children six months of age or older who are attending child care, pre-school, kindergarten, K-12 schools, and colleges and universities in the state. In December, the original Dec. 31 deadline was pushed to Feb. 28, 2021. However, less than a month later, the Department of Public Health dropped the mandate completely, citing a mild flu season and the need to focus on getting people in the state vaccinated for COVID-19.
While news items with “scandalous” or controversial headlines tend to make up much of our top stories lists, we were happy to see that several educational and leading practice articles also made the cut, including one of our tabletop exercise articles, which have continuously proven popular among our readers since we started them back in October. You can view the most recent one here, which includes links to all of the early installments.
Two articles related to security technology also made the list, including access control trends to look for in 2021 and using mass notification systems to automate lockdowns.
View this article’s slideshow to see all 10 stories from January
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About the Author
Amy Rock, Executive Editor
Amy is Campus Safety’s Executive Editor. Prior to joining the editorial team in 2017, she worked in both events and digital marketing.
Amy has many close relatives and friends who are teachers, motivating her to learn and share as much as she can about campus security. She has a minor in education and has worked with children in several capacities, further deepening her passion for keeping students safe.
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