[Praxius]

Students told: get vaccinations or get suspended

WINDSOR, Ont. - More than 1,400 Ontario students are facing suspension from school for keeping incomplete immunization records. The Municipality of Chatham-Kent's acting medical officer of health issued suspension orders Wednesday, warning parents in this community near Windsor, that if the students don't get their shots or update their vaccine records this month, they will be barred from returning to school May 31. "We're looking at keeping our students immunized and up-to-date so that in the event of an outbreak we have the most current and up-to-date information," said Betty Schepens, manager of the Chatham-Kent Health Unit Communicable Disease Control Programs. The warning and subsequent suspension is standard procedure for the Chatham-Kent Health Unit. In 2006, about 800 students in the Chatham region received the mailed suspension order. Most of those students evaded suspension by getting their missing inoculations or simply updating their incomplete records with the health unit. "And then within the suspension month, the month of June basically, we were able to clear up all but 10, less than 10 that were still suspended," Schepens said. "This system seems to work well." Schepens said several health units have seen an increase in the number of incomplete immunization records this year compared to last; though she couldn't attribute the hike to any specific reason. Public health units are required by law to keep current inoculation records of students. Many times parents mistakenly believe their children's doctors or schools will forward the inoculation information to their local health units, Schepens said. "So, it's up to the parent to forward that information to us." The provincial Immunization of Schools Pupils Act also requires students to have diphtheria, tetanus, polio, measles and mumps shots up-to-date in order to continue attending school. In neigbouring Windsor-Essex County, the medical officer of health will resort to suspensions of students with incomplete records only as "a last resort," said Dr. G. Allen Heimann. "We do it on an individual case basis," Heimann said. "And we have not had the necessity for suspending large groups." To date, more than 90 per cent of Windsor-Essex County's elementary school children have current vaccine records. A review of local high school records is still underway, Heimann said. "We've got good immunization records and we're not facing any outbreaks in Windsor-Essex right now," Heimann said. Most vaccines are administered to students in their infancy. But, between the ages of four and six, the kids are poked with doses of diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus and polio immunizations. If they hadn't yet caught chicken pox, they can get the vaccine at age five. A last set of diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus shots is issued to teenagers between the ages of 14 and 16. Parents can opt their children out of the immunization schedule on medical, religious or philosophical grounds by completing an exemption form at their local health unit. Jane Bryce, who is the chair of the Lambton Kent District School Board, said the annual suspension can be frustrating, but it was not heavy-handed. "A lot of them receive several notices ahead of time, so it's not as though they don't understand," Bryce said. "I just think that sometimes we just have such busy lives that it's something that we just don't think about immediately. And they just don't get that done."

I'm sorry, I don't see a need for most vacinations.... if anything they make you sick to begin with.... they are injecting you with a neutralized virus so your body can adapt to it and become so-called immune.... but you're body still detects the virus and you still get the symtoms and the sickness for a few days.... so what's the point of getting a shot that does the exact same thing as having the virus to begin with?

And I don't see a need to force people to take them if they don't believe in them. If an outbreak happens, then those who go their shots will be fine.... those who didn't, well tough.... but that's the decision they should make themselves, not someone else. At least in the bottom there they say you can write up a form to exempt you from having to take the shots.... but this should also mean you shouldn't get suspended from school if this is the case.