Local 7-year-old who beat COVID is kicked out of community theater program for lack of vax

Few things are more heartbreaking than the tears of a child who has lost something dear to them.

Seattle-area mom Diane tells The Dori Monson Show she was equally distraught when she got a call from her 7-year-old daughter’s after-school community theater program, telling her the girl could not return to the Burien area program.

Why? Because the 7-year-old didn’t get a COVID vaccine.

Diane reached out to Dori on Tuesday with her frustration after the call from Hi-Liners Musical Theatre. Following three years of attending after-school programs at Hi-Liners, Diane says her daughter was eager to be back at the program after she and her entire family recovered from the virus last month.

“This worries me for so many reasons,” Diane said.

She calls out “how little common sense is happening with these policies.” Since her daughter now has natural immunity from her bout with COVID, “she’s like the least risky kid in your classroom right now.”

As of Wednesday, Diane adds, state vaccine mandates apply only to those 12 and older. She considers these new restrictions “doubling down on policy that is running out of control like a freight train.”

Dori was torn over the case.

“They’re a private business,” Dori said. “They should have sovereignty. They can make their own rules. On the flip side of that, I really empathize with you. What we’re doing to our kids right now is absolutely criminal. … I still support a private business to set their own rules, but I fear that rules like that are really dangerous and damaging to our kids right now.”

Though a Hi-Liners official denied an invitation to speak on air, Dori summarized what a spokesperson shared with him: “They have a performance coming up this weekend. There are a lot of kids who are vaccinated. They had to decide which parents they would tick off: those whose kids are vaccinated, or did they want to tick off Diane? They were afraid they wouldn’t be allowed to do a show if it flew in the face of their rules.”

“If those parents are still so concerned,” Diane wondered, “are they so scared that they’re locking themselves up? Are their kids going to school?”

“Furthermore, I’ve never had immunization records requested (from Hi-Liners) for anything,” she added. “I agree with the right of private businesses to set their own policies, but why are we doing this, and how far is it going to go? Where does it end?”

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.