Q: it Is legal for a public university to randomly require students to test for Covid and deny access to their class if not
Students will be randomly selected throughout the semester, 100 at a time. Students with no symptoms, no contact tracing, perfectly random. If they choose not to be tested they will be made to “ quarantine “until they comply. They will not be allowed to attend their classes. This is only for undergrad students, no grad students and voluntary for staff. Applies to students who live both in campus and at home. So after we have paid for her tuition, if she says she doesn’t want to undergo an unnecessary medical exam, they will prevent her from going to her classes, causing her to fail. They call it “ surveillance testing”.
A: She could refuse and file a court case, and ask for an immediate hearing. But courts are operating in reduced mode.
A: That’s a rather strange scheme. There’s little precedent on a lot of these issues. General, common sense health precautions are likely to be upheld in court. But this does seem wrongheaded. For one thing, with limited testing resources, it makes sense to focus on those with symptoms or probable exposure. For another, limiting to the undergrad population doesn’t seem logical. Unfortunately, there will be no clear answer until someone sues and a court gets a chance to decide the issue.
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