Culver City School Settles With Parents Over Coronavirus Vaccine Mandate

LOS ANGELES, CA — A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit brought against The Willows school by two sets of parents and the nonprofit group Protection for the Educational Rights of Kids that challenged the school's former coronavirus vaccine mandate.

Plaintiffs Paul and Dee Barshon, as well as Yotam Shochat and Shira Aflalo, along with PERK, alleged that the private Culver City school breached a contract by causing their children to get an inferior education by ordering them to take lessons remotely because the students were not vaccinated against the coronavirus.

During a Tuesday hearing, the plaintiffs' attorney notified Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brock Hammond of a tentative resolution in the case. The judge scheduled a status conference for Jan. 22.

No terms were divulged.

In the suit filed in January 2024, the plaintiffs contended that only the state Department of Public Health had the authority to establish vaccination regulations for students. The parents and PERK also maintained that The Willows improperly disallowed religious or other exemptions to students whose parents did not want their children to take the coronavirus shot.

The plaintiffs further argued that the enrollment contract between the school and the parents was ambiguous because the then-mandatory vaccination policy was not something anticipated by the two sides when the parties signed the student admission agreement.

Copyright 2025, City News Service, Inc.