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FOX 5's Melanie Alnwick spoke with D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson's office who confirmed she plans to introduce emergency legislation to push back the COVID-19 vaccine mandate to next school year. Alnwick says – at that time – it could be possible that the mandate would be removed altogether.

At-Large D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson says she will propose emergency, temporary legislation to delay D.C.’s COVID vaccine mandate for students over 12 to the 2023-2024 school year. The mandate was introduced a year ago, and was supposed to be enforced during this school year. This extension would be the second time that the deadline for COVID vaccination had been pushed — right now, students must show proof of vaccination by January 3.

A year after introducing a law that requires D.C. students over 12 to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, D.C. Council member Christina Henderson will put forward emergency and temporary legislation to delay the plan by another school year.

Council member Christina Henderson, however, said the city’s vaccination requirements, which include vaccines for diseases such as measles and polio, are essential to keeping schools safe. “I hope that people are understanding these efforts are not in vain,” Henderson said. “It literally is to protect the school community so that our kids can stay in school.”

Council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large) understands the importance of Bonds’ bill because of concern about senior hunger in the city. “It is incredibly important that our seniors are taken care of,” Henderson said. “Seniors are affected by the high inflation and high prices. This is why I have legislation raising the benefits for SNAP recipients in the city. We must do everything we can to help our seniors and that includes supporting aging in place.”

D.C. Council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large) serves as the chief sponsor of the bill, the College Student Athlete Compensation Amendment Act of 2021. “My bill would allow student athletes in the District to be compensated for NIL activity, set boundaries on the types of products or activities that athletes may endorse, enables universities to set reasonable rules around NIL activity and protect intellectual property, updates the athletes’ agent statute requirements, and maintains prohibitions on pay-for play or performance as well as payments to induce attendance at a particular school,” Henderson said in her Sept. 29 e-newsletter to District residents.

“Finally,” tweeted D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At Large). “This is huge for D.C. residents who are serving time for marijuana possession charges at prisons across the country. It’s beyond time that the classification for marijuana be reviewed & changed.”

“If the fines are not changing behavior, we need to figure out what are the other mechanisms by which we can get people to slow down on our streets,” said D.C. Council member Christina Henderson (I-At Large).

“I am very clear-eyed in recognizing that this is a controversial conversation that we are going to have,” said Council Member Christina Henderson in an interview with DCist about the latter bill. “I am also very clear in knowing that when we talk about traffic violence, the vast majority of incidents are occurring in communities of color. And so we have to talk about this in a way that deals with that tension.”

If the D.C. Council approves the Automated Traffic Enforcement Effectiveness Amendment Act, District drivers would accumulate one point for moving violations caught by traffic cameras, including running stop signs and red lights, and driving at more than 11 miles per hour above the speed limit.

While the Metro for DC bill is limited to D.C. residents only, At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson said she hopes the approach could expend to neighboring Maryland and Virginia. “As we modernize the system and look forward, I think this is one tool in our toolbox to help boost ridership and to add some additional funding,” Henderson said.

The D.C. Council is closer to making two big changes to traffic laws in the city. Lawmakers voted 13-0 Tuesday in support of the Safer Intersections Act, a bill that bans right turns at all red lights by 2025 and allows cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs if the intersection is clear of pedestrians and vehicles.