As the country tackles COVID-19 with vaccines, more colleges are starting to require them. This shouldn’t be allowed, and students should make that choice themselves.

On March 25, Rutgers University announced that it is mandating that every college student receives the vaccine. Shortly after, colleges such as Yale, Georgetown, and Emory required vaccines as well. Each day, more colleges are requiring vaccines to enter the campus.

Mainly, parents aren’t willing to give their children a vaccine. “Only 58% of parents or caregivers said they would vaccinate their children against Covid, despite 70% of parents saying they would vaccinate themselves, according to a March poll by ParentsTogether, a national advocacy group,” states CNBC.com. Since the vaccine is fairly new, we still don’t fully know the long term effects of this vaccine. To protect kids from future troubles, parents are testing themselves and not their kids.

Another issue is that, just like a fake ID, students can finagle making a fake vaccination card. Eric Feldman, professor of law and professor of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, believes that some students will find ways to get out being vaccinated. He said, “What I was handed when I got vaccinated was a three-inch by three-inch piece of paper with a little sticker and a number on it. Anybody with a scanner and some photoshop skills could have created that in about 30 seconds.” With new printing technologies, people can fake almost any legal document. A vaccination card can easily be forged as well.

The last issue is that not everybody is eligible for this vaccine. Even though they just pushed forth the vaccine to those 12 and older, international students may not get the chance to get in line and get the doses. Feldman asked, “But what happens to the student from Bolivia, for example, who may gain access into the United States, but may be unvaccinated?”

If people can’t access the vaccine, will they be punished? Will the students have to “go virtual” if they can’t get a vaccine? Schools need to put this into consideration, especially for the 2021-2022 school year.

If you want to get vaccinated, go for it. But places can’t require vaccines for the people who refuse to get one.