College students at schools across America are lashing out against ongoing COVID-19 rules that include tracking them with apps, restricting their travel, threatening them with arrest unless they disclose their vaccination status and making them leave the room if they want to take a sip of water.
The rules vary by school. In some, they apply only to unvaccinated students, with those who have received the shots able to come and go as they please once they prove they are vaccinated.
But in some, even vaccinated students are being told they must undergo weekly testing and continue to wear masks in classrooms.
Colorado State University, where tuition is $31,712 a year for out-of-state students, is going further and threatening any student who doesn't register their vaccine status with arrest for trespassing.
The University of Southern California, where fees are $60,446-a-year, will not allow students to even take sips of water in class because it means they would have to slip their masks onto their chins. They must leave the room if they want to have a drink.
Harvard is mandating vaccines for all students and staff and Yale is enforcing it among students. Other Ivy Leagues, like Princeton, is forcing unvaccinated students to continue wearing masks.
Many students say the rules are an 'overreach' by college staff and a violation of their privacy.
Colleges across the country are still enforcing masks on students indoors even if they are vaccinated, and requiring kids to undergo testing regularly too. Others are enforcing stricter rules like excluding unvaccinated students from online classes or asking them to submit health data
Colorado State University issued this letter to students at the end of September warning them they could face arrest if they don't register their vaccine status
They have organized change.org petitions to reverse rules like a mandatory 'bio button' at Oakland University in Michigan that would give schools student health data, but also track their movements.
The college was offering the buttons out free to staff and students but were requiring that they be worn.
Angry students who opposed it said it was too much of an invasion.
'Many students are already hesitant, at best, to be tracked as they stay on campus (and as they leave for the weekend to visit home, go to class, grocery shop, etc.)
'A large portion of students feel that this in violation of their privacy and some students have stated that their rejections of this idea come from a religious basis,' a Change.org petition that opposed it said.
The petition received 2,477 signatures and the college walked back the mandate,
