Washington High School’s Monitors Are Not Just for Unvaccinated Students

26th August 2021

Washington High School’s Monitors Are Not Just for Unvaccinated Students

Ankle monitors are also used in the NFL (Getty Images).

The Claim

A high school in Washington State is discriminating against unvaccinated students by forcing them to wear ankle monitors during high contact/close proximity sports.

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Emerging story

A number of articles have recently spread the claim that Eatonville High School in Washington State is forcing unvaccinated students to wear ankle monitors during a number of sports practices. These articles are using words like “segregation” to describe the policy.

On social media, users have been sharing the claims, with posts gaining significant attention. At least one post has managed to gain thousands of interactions.

A supporting image within the article body

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar’s investigation has discovered that while Eatonville High School does have a tracking monitor student-athlete policy, it does not discriminate against the unvaccinated. On the frequently asked questions page of the high school’s website, this is clarified under the question of whether the school is using trackers. The response to the question is that they are not trackers, but proximity monitors instead. They are used for students, “regardless of vaccination status.”

The page also clarifies that the monitors are being used in an effort to reduce quarantines among student-athletes. Essentially, if a student who participates in a school sports team does test positive for COVID-19, then the data of the proximity to others within the student’s team will be used to determine who needs to be quarantined. The alternative would be to quarantine the entire team.

The school confirmed that the monitors were being used only during sports and not at any other time in the school day.

While this news may sound shocking to some, the use of proximity monitors in athletics has been adopted in a number of professional leagues. In September 2020, the SEC announced that every one of its football players would need to wear tracking monitors. And by this time, tracking monitors had also been used within the NFL.