Vaccinate or jail?

What the hell is up with this?

Md. schools get tough on vaccinations

By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press Writer Fri Nov 16, 5:56 PM ET

UPPER MARLBORO, Md. – Two months into the school year, more than 2,000 students in this suburban county outside the nation’s capital had yet to get the shots they needed to attend class. So the school system decided it was through playing nice.

Big deal? What’s the problem? I don’t get it.

Parents in Prince George’s County have been ordered to appear at a special court hearing Saturday where they will be given a choice: Get their children vaccinated on the spot or risk up to 10 days in jail and fines.

How exactly did a school district get the court involved in parents vaccinating their kids? Don’t we have options as parents anymore?

It is one of the strongest efforts made by a U.S. school system to ensure its youngsters receive their shots.

Prince George’s County school officials and prosecutors said parents have been duly warned about the need for vaccinations over the past year. They said the goal isn’t to throw parents in jail but to protect public health and get kids who have been barred from school back to class.

Isn’t it the parent’s right to decide what’s right for their children? I mean we have parents that for religious reasons will pray rather than seek medical attention for their dying children and that’s somehow acceptable, but not getting shots means jail time? How exactly does putting parents in jail help the kids? And why aren’t they allowed in school just because they haven’t had their shots? If their is an outbreak of smallpox, mumps, measles, whatever it’s the kids whose parent’s opted out that will get it not the vaccinated ones (for the most part). There used to be some waiver that parent’s could sign at the school saying that if their child came down with one of those diseases you have to pull them out so it’s not passed around – duh they’re sick.

“How can you in good conscience allow your child to miss school and their education for no particular reason?” said John White, spokesman for the 132,000-student school system.

And how can Mr. John White be such a pompous fucking ass? My question is, what if you fear what’s in the vaccines. Vaccines for children used to contain thimerosal as a preservative and in the 90′s when there was an increase on vaccines for kids there was also an increase in autism, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, and speech/language delay. I ask Mr. John White how many ADHD and autistic children does he want in each classroom? Ok, asking that question is a logical fallacy. Yes, they’ve removed all thimerosal from vaccines for children under the age of six, but I can totally understand some parents being nervous about giving their children shots. The school district has 132,000 students, and about 2,000 don’t have their shots? Dude that’s only 1.52%. Give it up you jackass!

At the courthouse, the health department will have a makeshift clinic to administer vaccines. Parents will be given the chance to offer the judge an excuse for why they didn’t get their kids vaccinated. Under Maryland law, parents can obtain exemptions for religious or medical reasons.

Whether justified or not, does fear of causing neurodevelopmental disorders qualify under “medical reason”? If not that’s just fucked up. Thanks so much for removing all of the parenting from being a parent.

Those who fail to show up — and those who fail to offer a valid excuse and still refuse the shots — could be prosecuted under truancy laws and face possible jail time and fines of $50 per day. Prosecutors do not expect to actually charge anyone on Saturday.

May I have a list of “valid” excuses? Just make it a multiple choice test.

“The message is get your kids vaccinated or get an exemption,” said Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey. “You can’t just sit on the fence.”

Fair enough I guess.

Barbara Loe Fisher, head of National Vaccine Information Center, a vaccine skeptic group, complained: “It is terrorizing parents. When you have the threat of going to jail, it is hard to make an informed decision.”

UUmmm honestly hon – it’s hard to make an informed decision about vaccinating even without the threat of jail. Just knowing that people claimed to get polio from polio vaccines in the past makes me leery. Without advanced knowledge of chemistry and/or biology a parent is just weighing on whether they think it’s more risky to vaccinate and get a known or unknown side effect from it or come down with some disease that hasn’t made much of an appearance for years.

Even the judge who opened his court is somewhat skeptical about hauling parents into court.

William Missouri, administrative judge for the county circuit court, agreed to the Saturday session and said it would probably prod some parents to comply. But the problem “may have been ratcheted up to a level it should not have been at this time.”

School officials said that it is not clear why parents are not complying, but that some may have religious or medical objections, while others may have failed to turn in the paperwork, or their kids’ addresses were outdated.

The prospect of stiff penalties appears to have worked already. Last week, when the court notices were sent to parents, 2,300 students had not been properly immunized. As of Friday afternoon, only about 1,100 remained on the list.

Maryland, like all states, requires children to be immunized against several childhood illnesses, including polio, mumps and measles. In recent years, it has required that students up to high-school age be vaccinated against hepatitis B and chicken pox.

Chicken pox? Really? What if they already had Chicken pox?

Chicken pox isn’t that bad – as long as you get it as a kid. Chicken pox used to be a time of great social gatherings. “My child has chicken pox” “Really? We’ll be right over so our kids can get it too!”

After that, thousands of students — most of them high schoolers — were found to lack the required immunizations. Parents were sent letters and visited at home, and the school system even offered free vaccinations.

“Once the word gets out, it will definitely work,” Bob Ross, head of the parent-teachers association at Surrattsville High School in Clinton, said of the new get-tough approach. “Parents are going to have to set aside some time. Parents have a responsibility to help protect the public health.”

I have a responsibility to protect public health? Since when?! Besides if my kid catches something because I chose not vaccinate her it’s mostly the 1.52% whose parents didn’t get the memo that will be affected. It won’t be like black plague. Besides you can get vaccinated as an adult too.

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