Arizona‘s colleges and universities no longer have the authority to mandate that students receive the coronavirus shot or wear masks in classrooms, The College Fix reported.
Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed an executive order last week that stripped tyrannical educational institutions of the power to force students into risky and unnecessary healthcare decisions, according to a press release.
The order stated that “students cannot be mandated to take the COVID-19 vaccine or submit COVID-19 vaccination documents. Students also cannot be mandated to be tested or wear masks in order to participate in learning.”
Arizona State University announced on June 14 that students returning to campus in the fall will have to prove that they received the COVID-19 shot.
If students failed to provide vaccination proof, then the school planned to indefinitely force them into “daily health checks, twice weekly testing and mandated mask-wearing.”
Ducey’s order prevents ASU and all other colleges and universities within the state from implementing these invasive policies.
“Public education is a public right, and taxpayers are paying for it. We need to make our public universities available for students to return to learning,” Ducey said. “They have already missed out on too much learning. From K-12 to higher education, Arizona is supporting in-person learning.”
Ducey’s order demonstrated his commitment to religious liberty, the state constitution, and to federal and state laws that give “individuals the option to accept or refuse vaccinations,” except with certain highly infectious and deadly diseases.
Although Ducey opposes mandates, he said he supported the COVID-19 shot.
“The vaccine works, and we encourage Arizonans to take it,” he said. “But it is a choice and we need to keep it that way.”
Ducey has asked the Arizona state legislature to make the executive order into a law.
