PARK CITY, Utah – Any student in Summit County could go to Park City High School Monday to get a COVID-19 vaccin ation from the Summit County Health Department. Students had to be at least 16 years old, with parental or guardian consent to get the shot.
Friday, a small group of 5-6 adults distributed anti-vaccination flyers at the school for about an hour around noon.
Both resource officers and the Park City Police Department responded to the protest. Police even cited one adult woman for trespassing on school grounds.
Phil Kirk with the police department said he’s not sure if the protesters were there because of the planned clinic.
“They were not very willing to communicate with us, they perceived us as part of the obstruction to their message,” Kirk said. “So I’m not sure if they’re connected with the vaccination process that was going on at the clinic or the timing on their demonstration.”
Lorie Pearce with the Park City School District said it’s unlikely parents made it into the school.
“My information I received, there wasn’t anybody in the school, there were parents outside of the school,” Pearce said. “The group of adults, including parents of high school students gathered in the front parking lot to distribute flyers.”
Park City High School Principal Roger Arbabi sent an email to parents Sunday about the incident, saying security footage did not show protestors entering the school.
Just a few hours after the anti-vax protest, there was an anti-mask protest at Park City School District. Kirk said the group of 50-60 protesters was cooperative with law enforcement .
Pearce said some students have also shown up to school not wearing masks.
“We’ve had a few reports,” she said. “But you know, students are required to wear masks unless they have a medical exemption. And so our schools are being diligent about making sure that they have documents in place that if a student shows up without a mask, that we have the exemption on file.”
Going forward, she said they do suspect that there will be more outspoken parents and adults against masks and vaccines.
“I don’t think it’ll be the end of it,” she said. “We’re looking forward … we’ve got 30-31 days left of school, and we’ve come a long way. We’ve kept our kids in school, our kids have worn masks this whole time. So, you know, we’re just hoping that we can continue educating these kids and do what we need to do on our end.”
She said the school district has security in place to deal with any potential future protests. Solicitation of any kind is not allowed on school campuses.
