Law School Suffers Through COVID-19 Outbreak, Sends Students To Remote Learning

Per the dean, the law student vaccination rate is 'not where we need to be.'

After sending students to remote learning environments for the better part of the past year and a half due to the coronavirus crisis, law schools across the country have finally opened up their doors to welcome their students back to real-life learning. But with COVID cases climbing due to the Delta variant, there were bound to be problems, and last week, one school learned that the hard way.

Capital University Law School, located in Columbus, Ohio, was open for about two weeks before it was forced to introduce its first-year students to remote learning. Several students tested positive for COVID-19, and 10% of students in one 1L section (along with other first-years) were placed on “heightened protocols” following contact tracing. The school immediately made the decision to move classes online, from September 3 to September 17.

This is particularly unfortunate, because it was just last week that the school announced that it would require all students and faculty to be vaccinated — by December 17. That’s a bit of a late play, but for what it’s worth, the school is now taking a harder line: vaccination is required for spring enrollment and employment.

Local CBS affiliate 10 WBNS has additional details:

In an email, the university reiterated its requirement for students to be vaccinated by the end of the fall semester.

“Unfortunately, this outbreak once again demonstrates the need for, and importance of, vaccination and mask policies to address and control the virus. The Law School student population’s current vaccination rate of approximately 60% which is not where we need to be,” said Reynaldo Valencia, Dean and Professor at Capital University Law School.

We hope everyone at Capital Law is able to recover quickly from their bouts with the coronavirus and that no one has lasting complications.

What is your law school doing to prevent and deal with COVID-19 outbreaks? Do you feel safe on campus with classes in person? Please text us (646-820-8477) or email us (subject line: “[Firm Name] COVID Outbreak”) and let us know. Thanks.

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First-year students at Capital University law school move to remote learning after COVID-19 outbreak [10 WBNS]


Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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