On August 4th, the HIDOE released a statement regarding student athletes and vaccines: all student athletes are required to be fully COVID-19 vaccinated by the new fall season start date. In the case of receiving an exemption for the vaccination, students will need to take twice weekly COVID tests to participate in school sports.

It is time for people to come together and unite so Hawai’i residents can stop receiving sets of rules, separate from tourists, that no longer are for our health. Thousands of tourists arrive in Hawai’i every day to sleep in our hotels, go to our lū’au, and “enjoy the Hawai’i lifestyle.” While on the other hand, locals have been living stricter rules.

When looking at the standards for tourists and locals when it comes to COVID testing, the option for student athletes to opt out of the vaccine is completely unfair. When tourists travel to Hawaii, they test once and upload their results 24 hours before their arrival, as if COVID isn’t transmissible after testing, on the plane, or on their vacation. Yet the HIDOE expects the student athletes, coaches, and volunteers who have made the personal decision not to get vaccinated to test twice weekly.

How is this fair? There are children with medical problems, financial problems (paying for COVID tests), and those who do not agree with the vaccine and think it’s unsafe. Why are the sets of rules for tourists and locals completely unequal? If the concern is COVID, why is our government not restricting the amount of tourists coming to Hawai’i instead of restricting things the locals can do? Why do keiki have to suffer so we can continue to sell the Hawai’i dream vacation?

The decisions made by HIDOE since the beginning of the pandemic has only hurt the keiki of Hawai’i, which will hurt the future of Hawai’i. Why not help us, HIDOE?

There’s no doubt high school is a special and essential time to the growth of teens. High school sports helps teens stay on the right track by offering positive after school activities, push themselves to their highest potential, and expand high schoolers’ applications for college.

Please help Hawai’i’s student athletes by signing and sharing this link to demand that the DOE serves the community instead of implementing rules before community input.