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Yale has joined a growing list of universities that are requiring students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning in the fall. The university’s president and provost made the announcement Monday in an email to the Yale community. They urged students to get their shots as soon as possible, calling inoculation “the strongest tool for preventing transmission of the virus.” (4/19)

A group of Atlanta universities that includes Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, and Spelman College will require all students, faculty members, and staff to be vaccinated for the upcoming 2021 fall semester. The Atlanta University Center Consortium (AUCC), which includes the three historically Black colleges and universities as well as Morehouse School of Medicine and the AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library, made the announcement that employees and students will need to be fully vaccinated on Monday. (4/19)

The state House of Representatives approved a bill early Tuesday that would remove Connecticut’s religious exemption from mandatory school vaccinations, a major step for a hot-button proposal that has been raised three years in a row with no vote in either chamber until this week. “Because we’re in the middle of a health crisis, we need to take a firm stand on the efficacy of vaccinations,” said Rep. Henry Genga, an East Hartford Democrat. “We need to keep our most vulnerable residents in our decision making, always. This policy will help prevent the spread of illness and disease to those who are most vulnerable – those who have diabetes, autoimmune diseases, who make up many of our neighbors. While they cannot be vaccinated, we must do what we have to do to protect them.” (Carlesso, 4/19)

Twins Rese and Kendall Jaggars say they cannot wait for sleepovers again. The 16-year-old girls from Greenland are students at Portsmouth High School and received their first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination on Monday. Their mother, Stephanie, was in the school’s gymnasium with them to oversee the process. “I’m excited that we’re getting it and I hope a lot of other people will get it to protect themselves,” Kendall Jaggars said. (Haas, 4/19)

More than ever, the past year has shown how health and education go hand in hand and provided an opportunity to deepen the relationships between the two fields, said Katie Davis, director of the Center for Health Outreach, Access and Prevention at MetroHealth’s Institute for H.O.P.E. "The more that we partner together and support each other with bringing the health experts to the field and the education experts to the field, we really can impact the whole child and that community so that these students can be successful," she said. "I'm just hopeful that we continue to deepen the relationships that were already there that have gotten stronger this past year." (Coutré, 4/19)

Adolescence is a time when young teenagers are supposed to be growing independent and developing social connections outside of their own families. But the pandemic has limited those opportunities to spend time with friends and for kids to build their self-esteem. It’s no surprise then, that many parents say their teen has shown signs of a new or worsening mental health condition since the beginning of the pandemic. (Carter, 4/19)

When the pandemic shut down Florida schools last year, it was thought to be a short-term precaution to get the spread of the virus under control. So Maya, a 17-year-old student at Sarasota High School, reacted to the closure like a typical teenager. "At first, it was actually kind of fun because it was something we've never done before," she said. But as weeks turned into months, Maya became very depressed. (Carter, 4/19)

During a recent live stream hosted by Abdallah Elayan, an official Nintendo Brand Ambassador with 884,000 subscribers, a viewer donated $5 along with an accompanying message. “I’m gonna take my life now,” the viewer wrote. Elayan, who makes YouTube videos under the name AbdallahSmash, said he immediately erased the message from the live chat so other viewers wouldn’t see it. On a side monitor, he instructed his team of moderators to check in with the viewer. He kept his stream going. It wasn’t his first time handling this kind of situation. Elayan trains his moderators to move concerning comments to private chats where they can listen, and most importantly, deliver professional recommendations for therapists or hotlines. (Hood, 4/19)