Pilot program provides shots to kids in Denver schools
By Colleen O'Connor
The Denver Post
Posted: 01/29/2010 01:00:00 AM MST
Updated: 01/29/2010 05:58:16 AM MST
Jorge Aldana, a seventh-grader at Henry Middle School, grimaces Thursday as he gets a vaccination from registered nurse Kelly Busch, clinical project manager for Denver Health. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)
The federal government on Thursday launched a new program in Denver designed to increase childhood immunization rates. It is the first school-located program in the country to offer vaccines to all students, regardless of socioeconomic status, experts say.
Denver is one of two cities to test the program in elementary schools and the only city to test it in middle schools.
As recently as 2003, Colorado ranked 50th in the nation for childhood immunizations. Dr. Judith Shlay, a family physician at Denver Health who is the project's principal investigator, said those rates are improving, but Colorado could do better, especially among adolescents.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2008 about
91 percent of Colorado kids between the ages of 13 and 17 were up to date on measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. But only 32.4 percent had been inoculated against meningococcal meningitis, which is recommended for teens.
"Adolescents are a hard population to reach," said Dr. Matthew Daley, a pediatrician and vaccine research expert with Kaiser Permanente who is working with researchers at the University of Colorado and Denver Health Medical Center to evaluate the model.
By the time they reach middle school, most kids are up to date on vaccines required to enroll in school. And they are typically well, so they don't often visit a doctor who might recommend they receive inoculation for illnesses such as human papillomavirus and influenza.
"This is the most important preventative service we can offer children," said Dr. Judith Shlay, a family physician at Denver Health who is the project's principal investigator.
Offering inoculations at school makes life much easier for parents, who don't need to leave work to drive kids to a clinic or doctor's office. They just sign consent forms that are sent home, and then everything is done at school.
Parents never see a bill. The health insurance plans are billed directly.
Funding for the program comes from two grants from the CDC totaling $1.6 million.
The program is run by a partnership made up of Denver Public Schools, Denver Health, the University of Colorado Denver and Kaiser Permanente.
It's being tested in 20 elementary schools and eight middle schools, where a total of 4,000 students are expected to receive vaccines by the end of this school year.
On Thursday, about 130 students at Henry Middle School were vaccinated for seasonal and H1N1 influenza, meningococcal meningitis and for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Girls also received HPV.
At the auditorium in Henry, students got a shot in each arm and a whiff of nasal spray.
"I was really scared at first," said Cheyenne Schneider, 13. "I was really happy they did it all at once. I just felt a pinch. It turned out better than I thought."
In Denver elementary schools, the children receive flu vaccines.
According to the CDC, during the 2007-08 school year, 21 percent of Colorado's school-age kids who were not in high-risk groups were vaccinated against flu; 36 percent of the kids in high-risk groups received the inoculation.
"That's not good," Shlay said. "It should be higher."
Middle-school students will receive a booster for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Shlay said that in the 2006-07 school year, 63 percent of Colorado's adolescent students received the vaccine, compared with the national average of 41 percent.
"That is a required vaccination and still not all kids were vaccinated, so there's room to grow," Shlay said.
On Thursday, participating teens also were vaccinated for flu and meningococcal meningitis, which are not required by the state.
Research goals of the program include determining the cost of school-located vaccinations, the feasibility of billing health insurance plans, and how well they are accepted by parents and providers.
Data also will be collected to compare the vaccination rates in schools where this program is provided with schools not part of the pilot.
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14290838#comments#ixzz0e17po67f
http://www.10news.com/news/22339351/detail.html
Family: School Gave Daughter H1N1 Vaccine Without Consent
SAN DIEGO -- A San Ysidro family said a school violated their right to choose and jeopardized their daughter's health by giving her the H1N1 vaccine.
Fighting Swine Flu With Pepperoni
Last Update: 12/17 6:24 pm
Get a Shot, Get a Pizza Party
http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story/Fighting-Swine-Flu-With-Pepperoni/EhuwIPzsFEK-yh1OqX2eug.cspx?rss=785
(WXYZ) - The Detroit Health Department is fighting swine flu with pepperoni. When kids return to school after the holiday break, each class has the opportunity to get a free pizza party – if they sign up for the shots. It’s a simple fact--kids don’t like vaccinations – even when they can get them in a spray. Their parents, like Leslie Ethridge however, are often eager to get their kids protected, “Your children get 20 some odd inoculations, this is just another one, so if it’s available you should get the shot.”
But when Detroit schools – both public and private-- sent home permission slips for students to get H1N1 vaccine at school, the return rate was only about ten percent. Dr. Walter Davis, Detroit Pandemic Flu Coordinator, told us, “talking to principals and some parents we find that a lot of them are never receiving consent forms.” The Detroit Health Department has already been working especially hard to get the vaccine into the community.
For instance, today parents attending the Christmas program at the Foreign Language Immersion School on Outer Drive had the chance to get shots for themselves and their children before or after the program. Mom, Kimberley Wallace said, “This is the easiest for me. This way I don’t have to take them to the doctor’s office, take them out of school or anything so it works out real well.” But apparently not well enough. So Dr. Davis and his team came up with an innovative idea. They teamed up with Happy’s Pizza. And each class in the city that has a permission slip return rate of 80-percent or more will get a pizza party for the entire class.
According to Neil Master, Director of Advertising for Happy’s Pizza, “Kids love pizza and we love kids in Detroit and we take care of them whenever we can.” And while the kids may sign up for the pizza, the parents need to know it’s important to sign the forms because flu season isn’t over just because the number of cases have leveled off. Dr. Davis told us, “With our flu season, the peak is usually in February and it goes into March. I can tell you we will get hit again. We’re in December now. In January and February, the flu will increase tremendously.”
Another mom, L’Tonya Felder got shots for her children, “I think it’s extremely important. It’s important that the Detroit community come together and realize this is important for our health for our protection and we’re combating the h1n1 as well as the regular seasonal flu.”
Oct 30, 2009 11:48 pm US/Eastern OUTRAGE: 2 NYC Kids Get Flu Shots Without Consent
Now One Mother Is A Nervous Wreck Because She's Not Sure If Vaccine Will Exacerbate Her Daughter's Epilepsy
CBS News Interactive: H1N1 Virus Reporting
Jay Dow NEW YORK (CBS) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1
A swine flu vaccine mix-up has sparked outrage and concern. Two children were given the vaccine without their parent's consent. One mother said her daughter ended up in the emergency room after getting sick. It's a major mistake that could've cost one little girl her life. It will be a long weekend for 6-year-old Nikiyah Torres as a result of an H1N1 vaccination she received Thursday morning at PS 335 in Brooklyn. "He just gave me the needle, without asking me what is my name," Nikiyah told CBS 2 HD.
Without her mother's consent.
"I'm outraged. What parent wouldn't be?" mother Naomi Troy said. New York City health officials said another student -- at PS 65 on Staten Island -- was also given the vaccine without parental permission. Nikiyah's mother said she's furious over the mistake and not just because of her general objection to the H1N1 vaccine, but also out of concern over how it will interact with medication Nikiyah takes for epilepsy. "I don't understand how you make a mistake like that," Troy said. Troy said when she arrived at PS 335 on Thursday morning the school nurse actually asked her to sign a consent form for the vaccine -- even though he had already given it to her daughter."He knew he was in big trouble and he wanted to cover himself," Troy said.
After complaining about a stomachache and nausea, Nikiyah was transported to the emergency room and later released. The school's incident report states: "Student sent down to medical room in error by teacher. I, Warren Carter, a public health nurse at PS 335 in Brooklyn, N.Y. administered an H1N1 influenza vaccine in deltoid in error." City health officials said they do not "... expect any future adverse medical effects for these children, but we are working to determine how this misstep occurred, and we will develop additional safeguards to prevent similar instances in the future."
Troy said she's going to hold the city to its word and plans to forward the incriminating incident form to her lawyer. The school's incident report includes a brief follow up plan: "Have more than one personnel at school identify student via picture ID."
Article published October 29, 2009 Oregon mom says son given flu shot against orders Lucas County revises forms because of case Photo Tanika Redmond, left, opens a cooler with vaccine as Cheryl Murphy, Patti Fraker, and Sherrie Haar, R.N., stand by at Fassett.
( THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER ) Zoom | Photo Reprints By JENNIFER FEEHAN BLADE STAFF WRITER
Knowing her 7-year-old has had adverse reactions to medication in the past, Kim Lutheran thought she had made it clear she didn't want her son vaccinated for the swine flu. She signed the "no-consent" portion of the form Oregon City Schools sent home, then circled it with a black marker for emphasis. To her shock, her first-grader was given the shot when the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department set up a flu clinic Monday at Starr Elementary. When she found out later that day, she said she was livid, not to mention worried for her son Matthew's health.
"It wasn't just that we didn't want the vaccination. It was we didn't want the vaccination because," Mrs. Lutheran, a registered nurse, said. "The health department has to be held accountable for violating my parental rights to say no. They did not have parental consent. They had 'do not give consent.'•" The error has prompted the health department to revise the consent forms used for the in-school clinics planned across Lucas County, Larry Vasko, deputy health commissioner, said. "We really thought we had things in place that something like that would not happen, and it did," Mr. Vasko said. "Very fortunately - and we're most interested in the child's welfare - the child is apparently fine or in pretty good shape. We certainly have taken steps so that this sort of thing will not happen again."
Consent forms sent home with Maumee City Schools students this week - the next district where flu clinics are to be held - ask only for parents to sign the form if they want their children vaccinated. Those who do not give their consent should not return the forms, and their children will not be vaccinated, Mr. Vasko said. "Only kids from a classroom who have consent forms would come down to the clinic," he said. "They would be paired with their form at the time of vaccination." While that is what should have happened in Matthew Lutheran's case, it did not. Mrs. Lutheran, who works as an emergency room nurse at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center, said she was told Matthew was sent to the flu clinic, then sent back to his classroom. "He got sent back again by himself into this strange room with these strange people," she said. "Supposedly three people looked at his piece of paper before he went to the R.N. who gave him the immunization. ... He's 7. He didn't know."
Mr. Vasko said he is not certain what happened Monday. He declined to comment on who was involved or whether any employees would be disciplined for the error, but said he feels confident the mistake should be not be repeated. "I can give that assurance that we've really looked at it and really looked at our plans and procedures to make sure nothing like this would happen again," he said. Oregon Superintendent Michael Zalar said school officials were unaware of any other students being immunized without parental consent, an incident he deemed unfortunate. "All I can really comment on is that the school provided the site for the health department," he said. "We just were a location to assist their vaccination process."
The health department is attempting to immunize as many children as possible against the H1N1 virus, which is particularly hard on children. Oregon was the first school district in Lucas County to host the immunization clinics. The health department is scheduled to be in Maumee next week, with clinics on Monday at Fairfield, Fort Miami, Union, and Wayne Trail elementaries and on Wednesday at Gateway Middle School and Maumee High School. Mrs. Lutheran said she was assured Matthew would not get the second round of vaccine that children 9 years old and younger will be getting at school in a few weeks, but she plans to talk to him beforehand just in case.
"You tell your kids, 'Don't talk to strangers. Don't go with people who say they have a dog. Don't go with people who say they know mommy or daddy even if they know our names,' but I never thought I'd have to say, 'Don't let people put a needle in your arm without mommy standing there,'•" she said. "It never occurred to me I'd have to have that conversation with my 7-year-old."
By: Sarah Snyder
NewsWest 9
If you're a kid in school chances are moving up from elementary school to junior high is a pretty big deal. But not only are the new seventh graders here in West Texas loading up on school supplies - they're also loading up on vaccines. Thursday marked the first travel day for the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile - the nurses tell NewsWest, they're seeing about 20 children every day, but this summer, the clinic is needed more than ever after state lawmakers changed immunization requirements.
"I'm a little nervous about the shots," Monahans 7th Grader, John Michael Humphries, said. Before heading back to the classroom, new 7th graders like John Michael, have to get three new shots. "7th graders in the state of Texas will now need three new vaccinations to be able to start school," Tamara Bavousett, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner with the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, said. "They need the TDaP which is the Tetanus and Pertussis Booster, the MCV which is the Meningoccocal vaccine, and they will also need the Varicella which is the Chicken Pox vaccine if they haven't had the disease."
Health care providers tell NewsWest 9, a disease called Pertussis, similar to the whooping cough, has re-emerged this year. The state also added the Meningitis vaccine in response to the ongoing threat. "It can be deadly, so we're trying to vaccinate the children early that are in junior high to protect them now and when they're in their college years," Bavousett said.And with only a few weeks left before school registration dozens of families are seeking help from the Care Mobile. "It's good, I'm glad I didn't have to travel to Odessa," Humphries said. And his grandmother says, the Mobile Health Care Clinic has made a huge impact on their family. "I don't have to go all the way to Odessa," Trina Orona, John Michael's Grandmother, said. "It's easier right here and I don't have to wait long hours at the doctor's office either."
"We've seen many 7th graders, but I know there's many more out there that have not got their vaccinations yet," Bavousett said. "Also we'll be offering a free health clinic with the Family Health Center at Floyd Gwin Park from 10:30 to 1:00 on Saturday the 25th and those vaccines will be free for children ages 4-18 years."
NewsWest 9
If you're a kid in school chances are moving up from elementary school to junior high is a pretty big deal. But not only are the new seventh graders here in West Texas loading up on school supplies - they're also loading up on vaccines. Thursday marked the first travel day for the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile - the nurses tell NewsWest, they're seeing about 20 children every day, but this summer, the clinic is needed more than ever after state lawmakers changed immunization requirements.
"I'm a little nervous about the shots," Monahans 7th Grader, John Michael Humphries, said. Before heading back to the classroom, new 7th graders like John Michael, have to get three new shots. "7th graders in the state of Texas will now need three new vaccinations to be able to start school," Tamara Bavousett, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner with the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, said. "They need the TDaP which is the Tetanus and Pertussis Booster, the MCV which is the Meningoccocal vaccine, and they will also need the Varicella which is the Chicken Pox vaccine if they haven't had the disease."
Health care providers tell NewsWest 9, a disease called Pertussis, similar to the whooping cough, has re-emerged this year. The state also added the Meningitis vaccine in response to the ongoing threat. "It can be deadly, so we're trying to vaccinate the children early that are in junior high to protect them now and when they're in their college years," Bavousett said.And with only a few weeks left before school registration dozens of families are seeking help from the Care Mobile. "It's good, I'm glad I didn't have to travel to Odessa," Humphries said. And his grandmother says, the Mobile Health Care Clinic has made a huge impact on their family. "I don't have to go all the way to Odessa," Trina Orona, John Michael's Grandmother, said. "It's easier right here and I don't have to wait long hours at the doctor's office either."
"We've seen many 7th graders, but I know there's many more out there that have not got their vaccinations yet," Bavousett said. "Also we'll be offering a free health clinic with the Family Health Center at Floyd Gwin Park from 10:30 to 1:00 on Saturday the 25th and those vaccines will be free for children ages 4-18 years."
DC students required to get controversial HPV vaccine Why the hype?
By Richard Hartman Aug 15 2009, 06:40 AM
In just a few weeks, students in Washington, DC will be back in school and District law requires all students to have their immunizations. For the first time, girls entering the sixth grade need to add the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to that list, although it remains voluntary for older students.
Many parents say the school system didn't do enough to inform them about this new requirement or the fact that they actually have the choice to opt out. Yes, the policy is like a Bill Clinton waffle. Apparently DC has a squishy definition of the word "require" since parents can also sign a waiver that opts their daughter out of facing the needle, but learn quickly the bureaucratic ways of paperwork.
Since the FDA's 2006 approval of Gardasil, the vaccine against certain types of the disease that causes genital warts and cervical cancer, there continues to be public debate regarding the government's role in promoting or even mandating the vaccine for school-aged girls as a condition of enrollment in public schools.
So what's the hype on the HPV vaccine? Crucial safeguard of public health, or unproven and possibly dangerous government intrusion? It depends on your point of view.
Since Gardasil was first approved, over one hundred different bills have been introduced in 41 states and the District of Columbia to require, fund and/or educate the public about the HPV vaccine. Governor Rick Perry of Texas faced controversy and political opposition in 2007 when he issued an executive order that would have required the vaccine for incoming students.
That executive order was overturned by the Texas legislature and as of 2008, Virginia and DC are the only jurisdictions to mandate the vaccine for school entry. Currently 12 states have proposed HPV related legislation or resolutions, with Kentucky, New York and Texas considering mandates in the next legislature.
Some fear the long-term effects of a new vaccine, but most medical experts say the only concern is with the short-term possible side effects that accompany most widely used vaccines that contain an inactive virus. To date, according to the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration there were 13,758 reports of adverse events occurring after women and girls received Gardasil, out of the more than 24 million doses that had been given to girls and women up until that time. On its Web site, the CDC notes that these events "may or may not have been caused by the vaccine." Most of the problems -- 93 percent -- were considered to be mild, such as headache, nausea and fever. But 7 percent involved a hospitalization, permanent disability, life-threatening illness or death.
Others take a more cynical approach and wonder if the pharmaceutical industry, which stands to benefit financially from widespread vaccine requirements, is exercising its influence with lawmakers. Whatever your position, the debate is once again heating up about whether or not to require girls to be vaccinated against HPV, which infects approximately 20 million people in the United States with 6.2 million new cases each year.
Currently, the only HPV vaccine approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is Merck's Gardasil, which protects against HPV strains 6, 11, 16 and 18. Almost 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts cases are linked to these four strains of HPV. From a public health perspective it only makes sense to prevent disease rather that deal with the symptoms. Unfortunately, there is no treatment for HPV, only treatment for related health problems.
With health care costs on the daily headlines, perhaps governments are doing the right thing. After all, as one of our founding fathers said, "an once of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_news/archive/2009/08/15/dc-students-required-to-get-controversial-hpv-vaccine.aspx
By Richard Hartman Aug 15 2009, 06:40 AM
In just a few weeks, students in Washington, DC will be back in school and District law requires all students to have their immunizations. For the first time, girls entering the sixth grade need to add the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination to that list, although it remains voluntary for older students.
Many parents say the school system didn't do enough to inform them about this new requirement or the fact that they actually have the choice to opt out. Yes, the policy is like a Bill Clinton waffle. Apparently DC has a squishy definition of the word "require" since parents can also sign a waiver that opts their daughter out of facing the needle, but learn quickly the bureaucratic ways of paperwork.
Since the FDA's 2006 approval of Gardasil, the vaccine against certain types of the disease that causes genital warts and cervical cancer, there continues to be public debate regarding the government's role in promoting or even mandating the vaccine for school-aged girls as a condition of enrollment in public schools.
So what's the hype on the HPV vaccine? Crucial safeguard of public health, or unproven and possibly dangerous government intrusion? It depends on your point of view.
Since Gardasil was first approved, over one hundred different bills have been introduced in 41 states and the District of Columbia to require, fund and/or educate the public about the HPV vaccine. Governor Rick Perry of Texas faced controversy and political opposition in 2007 when he issued an executive order that would have required the vaccine for incoming students.
That executive order was overturned by the Texas legislature and as of 2008, Virginia and DC are the only jurisdictions to mandate the vaccine for school entry. Currently 12 states have proposed HPV related legislation or resolutions, with Kentucky, New York and Texas considering mandates in the next legislature.
Some fear the long-term effects of a new vaccine, but most medical experts say the only concern is with the short-term possible side effects that accompany most widely used vaccines that contain an inactive virus. To date, according to the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration there were 13,758 reports of adverse events occurring after women and girls received Gardasil, out of the more than 24 million doses that had been given to girls and women up until that time. On its Web site, the CDC notes that these events "may or may not have been caused by the vaccine." Most of the problems -- 93 percent -- were considered to be mild, such as headache, nausea and fever. But 7 percent involved a hospitalization, permanent disability, life-threatening illness or death.
Others take a more cynical approach and wonder if the pharmaceutical industry, which stands to benefit financially from widespread vaccine requirements, is exercising its influence with lawmakers. Whatever your position, the debate is once again heating up about whether or not to require girls to be vaccinated against HPV, which infects approximately 20 million people in the United States with 6.2 million new cases each year.
Currently, the only HPV vaccine approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is Merck's Gardasil, which protects against HPV strains 6, 11, 16 and 18. Almost 70 percent of cervical cancer cases and 90 percent of genital warts cases are linked to these four strains of HPV. From a public health perspective it only makes sense to prevent disease rather that deal with the symptoms. Unfortunately, there is no treatment for HPV, only treatment for related health problems.
With health care costs on the daily headlines, perhaps governments are doing the right thing. After all, as one of our founding fathers said, "an once of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
http://ohmygov.com/blogs/general_news/archive/2009/08/15/dc-students-required-to-get-controversial-hpv-vaccine.aspx
This is in Florida where we have religious exemptions...Disinformation at its finest.
http://www.wcsh6.com/includes/tools/print.aspx?storyid=107642
AUGUSTA (NEWS CENTER) -- The head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Maine's Education Commissioner briefed reporters Friday morning on what their agencies will be doing this fall to protect the state's children against the H1N1 virus, also known as the "Swine Flu."
Maine CDC Director Dr. Dora Anne Mills and Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Brenda Harvey told reporters Friday morning that the transmission rate for the H1N1 virus will increase significantly this fall and if this past summer is any indication, most of those cases will be in people under the age of 25.
Dr. Mills says a strong indicator lies in the fact that 36 summer camps for kids were hit with swine flu in the past six weeks.
Dr. Mills, DHHS Commission Harvey and Education Commissioner Susan Gendron say students will be given permission slips on the first day of school to bring home to their parents, giving them the option to get a regular flu shot in September and a swine flu vaccine when it becomes available in mid-October.
Meanwhile, DHHS will be holding a "swine flu summit" on August 20 at the Augusta Civic Center, where health and education officials will try to come up with a game plan on how to handle H1N1 this fall.
NEWS CENTER
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hbs-FO8lE3ZraaOV7CtTQuSuaVigD98RUDC00
WASHINGTON (AP) - Schoolchildren could be first in line for swine flu vaccine this fall - and schools are being put on notice that they might even be turned into shot clinics.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday she is urging school superintendents around the country to spend the summer preparing for that possibility, if the government goes ahead with mass vaccinations.
"If you think about vaccinating kids, schools are the logical place," Sebelius told The Associated Press.
No decision has been made yet on whether and how to vaccinate millions of Americans against the new flu strain that the World Health Organization last week formally dubbed a pandemic, meaning it now is circulating the globe unchecked. But the U.S. is pouring money into development of a vaccine in anticipation of giving at least some people the shots.
While swine flu doesn't yet seem any more lethal than the regular flu that each winter kills 36,000 people in the U.S. alone, scientists fear it may morph into a more dangerous type. Even in its current form, the WHO says about half of the more than 160 people worldwide killed by swine flu so far were previously young and healthy.
If that trend continues, "the target may be school-age children as a first priority" for vaccination, Sebelius said Tuesday. "That's being watched carefully."
Schools do occasionally team up with local health officials for special flu vaccination clinics but it's not common. More than 140 schools around the country scheduled flu vaccination days last fall, some providing free vaccine. Some vaccinated only students bearing parent consent forms; others opened their doors to entire families.
In a wide-ranging interview, Sebelius said it could take several years to meet President Barack Obama's top healthcare priority - covering the uninsured - even if Congress manages to pass legislation this fall.
"Will something probably be phased in? You bet," Sebelius told The AP. It could take until 2011 or 2012 to set up new programs, time that would help spread out a cost that by some estimates would be $1 trillion over 10 years.
Among the aims of the administration's planned overhaul is to help eliminate health disparities between minority groups and whites, "which frankly is unconscionable," Sebelius said.
Hispanics and blacks are more likely to lack health insurance, and also have higher rates of a host of illnesses. But Sebelius said some of the most severe disparities are found with American Indians, and pledged a multiyear effort to reverse "a historic failure of the government." The U.S. is obligated to provide free health care on reservations, but the troubled Indian Health Service has only about half the money it needs.
More immediately, Sebelius faces the looming question of whether to push forward with swine flu vaccinations this fall, on top of the regular winter flu vaccine that will be distributed as usual. A key challenge would be making people understand who needs which, or both, vaccines, decisions that will be made in part based on how swine flu behaves in the Southern Hemisphere this summer, where flu season is just beginning.
Sebelius soon will call together the nation's governors to be sure "these months between now and the fall aren't used as vacation months" but in getting ready.
"We can always sort of back off" if the new flu fades away, she said, "but we can't wait til October hits and say, 'Oh my heavens, what are we going to do?'"
Companies are on track to provide pilot doses for testing later this summer, Sebelius said. Those government-led studies will check if the vaccine seems to work, if one dose or two will be needed, and most important if it's safe. The last mass vaccination against a different swine flu, in the U.S. in 1976, was marred by reports of a paralyzing side effect - for a feared outbreak that never happened.
So the Food and Drug Administration will closely track vaccine safety, Sebelius said.
The secretary said: "The worst of all worlds is to have the vaccine cause more damage than the flu potential."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
I do not like the idea of schools interfering in the health of students. What is next vaccines after class? If schools are so concerned with the health of their students, how about making organic nutritious lunches instead of fast food and coke machines. Schools are for getting an education not for inflicting "healthcare".
June 4, 2004
THE NATION
Arkansas Schoolchildren Getting Weight Report Cards
By Rosie Mestel, Times Staff Writer
In an unusual move to address increasing obesity in children, Arkansas has begun mailing health reports to families of all its 450,000 public school children, informing parents of their children's weights and offering lifestyle tips. The state is the first in the country to require such annual reports. Its survey represents the largest body-weight assessment of American children and adolescents.
The first year's measurements, conducted for the 2003-04 school year, suggest that American children might be heavier than health experts believed, according to a report released Thursday at an obesity conference in Virginia convened by Time magazine and ABC News.
The Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, which is responsible for analyzing the weight data, found that 40% of Arkansas' children are either overweight or at risk of becoming so — 10% more than the federal government had estimated for 2001 for this region.
"I think the alarm bell should be sounded that this epidemic may be advancing much more quickly than previously predicted," said Dr. Joe Thompson, a University of Arkansas pediatrician and director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement.
The schools measured the children's height and weight in private with their faces away from the scales, then calculated the students' body mass index, or BMI. BMI is a person's weight in pounds multiplied by 703, divided by the square of their height in inches.
So far, researchers have analyzed BMI measurements on 276,783 students, more than half of Arkansas' public school students. Nearly 90% of the schools have reported their data and several thousand letters have been sent. The remainder of the 450,000 letters will be mailed during June and July. The survey found that 22% of children were overweight, 18% were at risk of becoming overweight, 58% fell in the normal range and 2% were underweight.
Letters for children in the overweight or at-risk categories encourage parents to meet with a pediatrician, suggest healthier snacks such as fruits and vegetables, limiting sodas, restricting television and computer time, and increasing family exercise time. But some experts worried that more detailed advice than this was needed if the letters were to be of use.
"It's just a bit general for my tastes," said Pat Crawford, co-director of the Center for Weight and Health at UC Berkeley. "I think parents need very explicit information on what to do and what not to do." Crawford said she worried that some parents could hurt the situation by putting their children on stringent diets or seeking out dietary supplements. The individualized health report is one of several anti-obesity moves that the Arkansas Legislature mandated in 2003.
The state has also banned vending machines from elementary schools, required reports on competitive food and beverage sales in schools, set up school nutrition and exercise committees and established a child health advisory committee. Experts hope that in future years Arkansas could become a scientific testing ground for measures to prevent obesity in children. Among the items that should be tested is whether annual BMI report cards could foster a preoccupation with food and a greater risk of eating disorders, they said. "I want to applaud Arkansas," said Dr. Carden Johnston, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a news conference. The academy recommends that doctors determine a child's BMI each year.
It is next....
2007-09-24 16:55:53
http://www.cna.com.tw/eng/cepread.php?id=200709240013
Taipei, Sept. 24 (CNA) The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Monday urged parents of first- and second-grade elementary students around Taiwan to sign an agreement allowing their children to undergo free influenza inoculations in schools.
CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Chih-hau said the 2007 free flu vaccination program is scheduled to begin Oct. 1 nationwide, and will last until Nov. 31. The program is part of efforts to prevent major outbreaks of the highly contagious disease, which usually strikes from October to March every year.
This year, Chou noted, the inoculation program will target senior citizens aged over 65, residents and health care personnel of nursing homes, patients suffering from rare disorders, children aged between six months and two years, quarantine personnel at medical and health institutions, as well as employees of livestock farms.
Notably, the 2007 program will also target more than half million of first and second graders around Taiwan, Chou added, indicating that since the vaccination is not obligatory, parents are requested to indicate their agreement before the time comes for their youngsters to receive the injection in schools.
Chou explained that having students vaccinated is expected to block transmission of the influenza virus to the elderly and infants, both of whom have weaker immune responses to disease. He urged the parents to participate in the collective vaccination program, which is an important part of the CDC's efforts to curb the prevalence of the influenza virus in the nation.
According to the Department of Health (DOH) , the government has purchased vaccines against three different flu strains, including the Solomon Islands strain of H1N1, the Wisconsin strain of H3N2, and the strain B/Malaysia, for the use this year.
Influenza is a virus-caused acute respiratory disease, the initial symptoms of which include fever, headache, muscle ache, fatigue, running nose, throat ache and coughing. Complications such as pneumonia, middle ear infection, encephalitis, Reye's syndrome and other sever infections, can develop, and in some cases, threaten the life of a patient.
In accordance with the national vaccination program, the Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH) will open a "single window" service counter Oct. 1-12, at which it will offer free flu inoculation to the aged, including those born before 1942 and holding the Republic of China nationality, as well as aged foreigners holding residence permits and national health insurance cards, and the patients suffering from rare disorders, hospital executives said.
The "window" will be set up in the lobby of the TVGH's Chungcheng building to offer the inoculation service at 8:30 a.m.-noon, and 1:30 p.m.-5: 00 p.m. from Monday to Friday, as well as 8: 30 a.m.-noon on Saturday, according to the hospital.
(By Elizabeth Hsu)
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bal-ed.immune14sep14,0,6872462.story
baltimoresun.comReel in vaccine resistersSeptember 14, 2007
As another deadline looms next week for students to show proof of immunization or be kept out of class, Baltimore school principals and staff should be making every effort to ensure that parents and students comply with the vaccine requirements. And parents need to stop being a roadblock to their children's education.
Required immunizations against chickenpox and hepatitis B reflect growing concerns that these diseases can have serious consequences for children well beyond kindergarten. However, no one gains if students are kept out of school for long periods of time.
In Baltimore, where more than 16,000 students had not been immunized by this time last year, officials say fewer than 2,500 this year still need their shots. That's good news in its way, but it's still a sizable number despite many letters, personal and automated calls and up to 300 home visits made so far.
School administrators have done a better job of tracking stragglers this year and plan to send each one home today with a personalized note detailing what shots are needed and where they can be obtained. How outrageous that they must spend their time prodding parents to be responsible.
But though health department workers have given thousands of shots and housing department workers have made dozens of home visits, school officials are in the best position to follow up with students and their families. Special efforts must be made to find an estimated 250 students who need shots but have not yet shown up for school. They may have left the city school system or they may be chronic truants, but their status needs to be determined and they need to be pulled back into a school.
Principals and teachers must also keep careful watch over about 1,400 of the stragglers who are in neighborhood and citywide high schools. They are being sent home today with parental consent forms so that they can come back next week and be given their shots by the school nurse assigned to each high school. Extra nagging by school administrators is justified because ninth-and 10th-graders kept out of school for lack of compliance could become dropouts.
For the sake of overall public health and safety, officials must aggressively pursue vaccine resisters and no-shows. Students need to be immunized - and in class.
Another good reason to homeschool
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=1162650
Recruiting drive for nurses to give shots
16.07.2004
By AINSLEY THOMSON
A recruiting drive is under way to hire nurses and support staff needed to give the meningococcal vaccination to 150,000 children. On Monday the programme starts in south and east Auckland and more than 100 registered nurses are needed to give schoolchildren their three injections. Additional nurses are also needed to help GPs to administer the vaccine to children under 5 or teenagers who have left school, and support and administrative staff are being hired. All this has meant a major recruiting drive for the Counties Manukau District Health Board.
South and east Auckland are the first places the vaccine is being given because they have the highest rates of the disease, which, since 1991, has killed 220 New Zealanders - 80 per cent of them children - and maimed hundreds more. Kidz First public health co-ordinator Natalie Dawson said there were 36 public health nurses already employed and so far 52 nurses had been recruited. A further 15 nurses were needed.
There had been a lot of applications. "We were just amazed. I think people saw this as something really positive they could do." The nurses were employed on fixed-term contracts until the end of the year, but it was likely many would transfer to other district health boards when they began their vaccination programmes. Nurses would undergo a week's orientation and would need a vaccination certificate. Sue Miller, meningococcal programme manager at the health board, said work was being done to find out how many nurses would be needed to help GPs.
"What we are trying to do is help GPs with the recruitment process, sourcing of the nurses, interviewing and helping with their administrative tasks." While the campaign started on Monday, the actual vaccinations would not be given in schools until August 2, she said. She was confident all the necessary nurses would have been hired by then. About 20 support and administrative staff would also be hired to help the nurses with the lengthy vaccination process.
"There are a number of activities from the time children come from the classroom until they get the vaccination. We try to create a friendly, low-stress, low-intensity environment. The children are met, then their consent forms are pulled out. "Then a nurse does what we call a triage process, so if a child is unwell or fearful or there is conflicting information on the consent form, we don't automatically vaccinate. There is quite a process."
THE M WORD: The numbers
All relate to stage one of the programme, in south and east Auckland.
104 nurses giving the vaccination.
450,000 vials of the vaccine will be given.
100,000 consent forms are being sent out to parents. (50,000 without consent forms?)
150,000 people will be vaccinated.
228 schools will be involved.
85,540 translated inserts for the consent forms in various languages.
4500 envelopes to hold returned consent forms.
32,000 6-page foldout information leaflets.
42,500 translated versions of the info leaflets.
150 flip charts to use in educating people.
1600 teacher packs to use in educating children.
6000 16-page information booklets.
330,000 post-vaccination forms.
256,630 translated versions of the post-vaccination forms.
1360 posters.
150 operating manuals for nurses.
01/27/05 Immunizations in School
http://www.ktre.com/Global/story.asp?S=2868322&nav=2FH5VhMB
by Jessica Cervantez
Kids can now go to the school nurse for more than just colds and sicknesses, they can now get their immunization shots at school.Brenda Whitman, the elementary school nurse supervisor, said, "We ran into a problem this year that we hadn't had before, some of our community resources lost their grants in order for them to come to school to give shots. So, we were having to send our children to Lufkin and even to Mt. Enterprise for them to get shots and get to school the same day that they registered."
The program is called "Texas Vaccines for Children." Whitman said, "Monday we had five children registering for school and we gave each child at least four or five shots a piece for them to attend their first day." If the students miss school, not only do they miss out, but so does the school. Whitman said, "We are paid by our daily enrollment and we don't want any child to miss one day of school if they don't have to miss." Lack of immunization records often cause many Hispanic students to miss school. That's why HACER, Hispanic Alliance for Community Enrichment, found it important to donate two refrigerators to the district.
Ruben Rodriguez, the HACER president, said, "If the school needs refrigerators then I think we can help that." The only schools that need refrigerators now include Raguet and Nettie Marshall Elementary, McMichael Middle school and the charter school. If you would like to donate a refrigerator to one of those four remaining Nacogdoches schools in need just contact one of the school nurses.
School offers HPV vaccine
November 24, 2007
By Sarah Hinckley Herald Staff
Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester has begun to offer an HPV vaccination to its student body through the school's health clinic. The human papilloma virus is contracted by 50 percent of people who are sexually active; 20 million people are infected and another 6 million will contract it by the year end, according to the Center for Disease Control. The HPV vaccination protects against four strains of HPV that are known to cause cervical cancer. "The HPV is something we feel really strongly about," said Meg Burns, a registered nurse and director of the school health clinic. "We knew it would be kind of edgy … The positive support has been unbelievable. We haven't had anybody come in and say they've disagreed."
According to the Center of Disease Control, there are 10 strains that can cause cervical cancer. There are 100 different strains of HPV, 30 of which are transmitted sexually. Females can be tested for the virus through a pap smear. There is no test for males. Within the first two years of contracting the disease, 90 percent of women test negative for cervical HPV. The academy was approached by the Vermont Immunization Department to offer the vaccination to its female students. A refrigerator was purchased, temperature control was tested for two weeks and a physician had to sign on before the shot could be administered. "It took some time because we needed to get permission from the state," Burns said.
This month was the first in which the vaccine was dispensed and interest in the vaccination has been strong. Parental permission is required for students to use the health clinic and additional consent must be given for reception of the immunization. "The first two dates filled up pretty quickly," Burns said. "We're full and some students have waited a couple of weeks." Immunizations are offered at the school health clinic the first Tuesday and Wednesday of each month. They are done in three doses, which are administered over six months. In the school program the shot is combined with a tetanus vaccination. As many as 10 new students can receive the shot each day it is offered, which leaves room for the necessary successive shots.
"We immediately book the student for their shot number two," said Burns, who also sends a reminder email. "If they forget we track them down." Ample notice was sent out to parents and students before the first dates the immunization was offered, through a blast e-mail and the school newspaper. "We wanted to make sure the parents and students had enough information," said Burns, who has been at the school for 12 years. There are 710 students at Burr and Burton Academy. When there was a nurse practitioner employed at the school, full services, such as gynecological exams, blood work and testing for STDs, were offered. Besides Burns, a Licensed Practical Nurse is also employed at the clinic, which provides education, counseling and support services to the students.
"We provide a lot of education (and) counsel kids on being sexually active and depression," said Burns. "We definitely see more girls in here. More girls access nursing services and healthcare, period."
Contact Sarah Hinckley at sarah.hinckley@rutlandherald.com.
"Ow," says Denae Woods, 15, a sophomore at Westwood High School in Mesa as Firefighter Steve Ward gives her a tetanus shot during a mock bioterror drill held Thursday as a practice session for emergency crews.
By Jonathan Sidener
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 22, 2002
Officers with assault rifles and paramedics armed with hypodermic needles invaded Mesa's Westwood High School on Thursday. The men and women in uniform were part of a daylong drill at the school to see how ready health, emergency and military systems are to deal with a bioterror attack.
But the mock attack also helped provide a day of distraction for Westwood students. Some got breaks from class to participate in the drills. Others stared at the onslaught of TV satellite trucks and emergency vehicles surrounding the gym. Several football players on the way to practice were particularly enthralled with the officers' combat weapons. The bioterrorism training began at 9 a.m. as paramedics and public health nurses began dishing out tetanus shots to students. Slightly more than 3,000 students from Mesa's six high schools, including 500 at Westwood, received the free shots.
Students knew they were getting shots they needed by January, but unless they read about it in the newspaper, they didn't know they were contributing to national emergency planning.
"They just told us we needed tetanus shots," student Tracy Theriot said.
While emergency officials routinely conduct mock drills, the opportunity to immunize thousands of students added realism this time around, said Mary Cameli, deputy chief of the Mesa Fire Department.
"We've done many of these on the tabletop, but the chance to do it hands-on is the best," Cameli said. "We had some kids faint and some signs of anxiety, things we wouldn't have seen if we weren't giving real shots." In the drill immunizing students, emergency workers discovered bottlenecks when the paperwork went faster than the needlework, Cameli said. On the one hand, giving shots to 3,000 students in two hours is an accomplishment, she said. But it's still a small sample of the number of people who might need inoculation in a real emergency.
Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta sent a shipment of mock antibiotics to Tucson from one of 12 secret locations that make up the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile. Thursday morning, emergency workers in Tucson unpacked and sorted the labeled, but empty, pill bottles. Some bottles remained in Tucson for a drill there today. A team of Department of Public Safety officers escorted the supplies to Mesa. Wearing flak jackets, combat boots and helmets, they guarded the cargo until it was carried into the gym.
Inside, 200 adult volunteers waited for antibiotics to treat their fake anthrax.
Volunteer "victims" went through a medical screening process and waited to meet with one of the pharmacists, who dispensed the fake antibiotics from Tucson.
Mostly, they waited.
Christine Mahon, of the Maricopa County Public Health Department, said the afternoon drills had also turned up some bottlenecks. Officials will look for ways to smooth out those areas in case of a large-scale crisis. We're testing our process," Mahon said. "If we can do well with hundreds of people, then we could do well with thousands."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2988754a11,00.html
Parents angry at vaccine pressure
01 August 2004
By EMILY WATT
Angry parents say their children are being terrified and bribed into having the meningococcal vaccine with what one father described as "sneaky and nasty" tactics. Some schools are giving children chocolate and morning tea as a reward for returning consent forms. One mother said her eight-year-old burst into tears saying "I don't want my limbs to fall off" when told he could not have the vaccine. The boy told his mother two teachers had come to his Clayton Park School classroom in Manurewa, south Auckland and warned him of the threats of the disease. "They're using scare tactics on the children," the parent told the Sunday Star-Times. Clayton Park School principal Bernard Barradell denied teachers told children they would lose their limbs and said children were probably scaring each other. "I'd be flabbergasted if one of my staff said that," he said.
But the parent said her child had been very clear the warning came from the teachers. She said such tactics frightened children and manipulated parents. "He's making me feel terrible that I'm not letting him have this 'life saving' thing." Immunisation Awareness Society researcher Sue Claridge said the organisation had received a number of complaints from parents concerned their children were being manipulated by schools into having the vaccine.
One parent said her five-year-old was shown photos of a baby with amputated arms on her first day of school and came home afraid she was going to die. Claridge pointed out there were also graphic images on the consent forms of children scarred with the disease and those would frighten children. Carol Mallard, a school principal who helped develop the schools' training programme and information pack, said the resources were designed to inform children about the disease and it was up to schools to use them appropriately.
"We were mindful of the fact that the Meningococcal B can have devastating effects but we didn't want to frighten the children," she said. Claridge said showing graphic images to young children was unprofessional and unethical as it did not help early diagnosis and children did not need to be persuaded as they were not required to consent. Other parents reported they were being pressured into deciding whether to have their child vaccinated. One father complained to the Sunday Star-Times his daughter's school was offering children chocolate to return their vaccine consent forms the next day. When he did not return the form the next day, he said the school telephoned him and asked him to bring it in.
The school also promised a free morning tea to the first class to return all their forms and his daughter felt she was letting the class down when he was unwilling to sign the form immediately. But the principal of Waiuku's View Bay School Trevor Guthrie said the school had put pressure on to get the consent forms returned but they had not encouraged children or parents to consent to the vaccine. He said he had "no issues" with parents taking more time to consider the vaccination but the school was trying to target those who might not otherwise bother to return the form. Kidz First public health nurse Elizabeth Farrell praised schools in getting the consent forms returned quickly. There was some pressure to begin vaccinations so the rest of the country's vaccines would not be delayed, she said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1651-2004Oct1.html
The Washington Post
District Resorts to Court To Enforce Inoculations
434 Students' Parents May Face Neglect Charges
By Sewell Chan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 2, 2004; Page B04
Education officials in the District announced yesterday that they would begin referring the cases of 434 students who lack proof of immunization to the city's Family Court, where the children's parents and guardians could be fined or jailed and ultimately charged with child neglect. All of the children have been barred from attending classes, which began Sept. 1.
Officials said the referrals to the judicial system are a drastic but unavoidable option because numerous outreach efforts have failed to compel parents and guardians to obtain or document the required shots. A 1979 city law prohibits students from attending school without current immunization records. A major push to enforce the law began in 2002.
Of the 434 children, 379 are in middle, junior high or senior high schools. Although many of them had been immunized in previous years, their records are missing or they have not received catch-up shots or booster doses against such diseases as tetanus, diphtheria, chickenpox and hepatitis B, officials said.
Ralph H. Neal, the assistant superintendent who oversees enforcement of the immunization rules, said that numerous notices have been mailed since the spring to remind parents of the requirements. City workers have knocked on doors and placed telephone calls to get families to respond.
"Principals have made phone calls and even taken kids to the clinics themselves," Neal said. "It is definitely the parents' responsibility to make sure that the students are in compliance with the immunization law. The court system will have to fulfill its responsibility with respect to charging families with truancy or neglect."
Under a 1990 law, parents who fail to make sure that their children attend school can be fined as much as $100 and jailed for as many as five days for each offense. The Family Court, a division of D.C. Superior Court, has assigned a judge to focus on truancy cases.
The District appears to have an especially severe problem with immunizations. In Loudoun County, for example, very few students showed up to school on the first day without immunizations, and those who did received their shots within days, said Wayde B. Byard, a spokesman for the school system. In Fairfax County, letters and phone calls are nearly always sufficient to get parents to comply quickly, said Diana F. Jarrett, coordinator of student registration services for the county school system.
Lost records and missing immunizations are common in low-income urban school districts, where many families lack consistent access to preventive health care, said Deborah L. Wexler, an advocate for childhood immunizations.
"People move frequently, from place to place and clinic to clinic, and there's the issue of lost or unretrievable records," said Wexler, a family physician who heads the Immunization Action Coalition, based in St. Paul, Minn., which tries to increase vaccination rates. "Kids fall behind in their vaccinations. They slip through the cracks. A lot of families live from day to day, and immunization just isn't a top priority when there are other crises going on."
Most immunizations occur in infancy or early childhood. However, children are supposed to receive a tetanus-diphtheria booster dose about age 11, and children who have not received a second dose of immunization against mumps, measles and rubella before kindergarten generally receive it when they enter middle school. The hepatitis B vaccine was not recommended until 1991, and vaccinations against chickenpox began in 1995, so older children might lack those immunizations.
Karyn L. Berry, interim deputy director for primary care and prevention at the D.C. Department of Health, said that lost records have become less of a problem since the department began a computerized immunization registry. The health department is urging parents to first contact their primary-care physicians to arrange for immunizations, but has arranged for six clinics to provide free shots for families lacking other options. For information about the clinic locations, call 800-MOM-BABY (800-666-2229).
Staff writers Maria Glod and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1004/183802.html
D.C. Parents In Court On Lack of Vaccinations
Friday October 29, 2004 10:11am
Lack of Vaccines Put Parents In Court
Washington (AP) - Some D.C. parents who were called on the carpet because their children weren't immunized in time for school are blaming mix-ups.
Susie Simms says she had her child immunized on time and she's angry about having to appear in court Friday.
Patricia Williams says her son got his shots on October 14th, the same day he enrolled in Spingarn High School. The D.C. attorney general's office was given the names of parents who didn't immunize by October 15th, and an assistant AG says she will pursue cases of those immunized after the 15th . Forty-one parents have been charged but only 38 were due in court Friday because the others weren't notified in time. Parents are due back in court on December seventh.
Parents face one count for every two days of school their children miss. The penalty for each count is five days in jail and/or a $100.00. Some parents are facing as many as 14 counts over how long
their child has missed school.
washingtonpost.com <http://www.washingtonpost.com/>
Correction to This Article
An Oct. 30 Metro article on District parents and guardians who had to appear in court because they failed to prove their children had been immunized quoted a mother as saying she did not know her daughter needed a tuberculosis shot. For tuberculosis, D.C. public schools require not a shot but a skin test for exposure to the disease. Parents of D.C. Students Without Shots Sent to Court
By Manny Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 30, 2004; Page B01
District parents and guardians who failed to prove that their children had been properly immunized this school year got more than a summons to the principal's office: They were ordered to appear in court. D.C. public school officials referred the names of all parents who they alleged had failed to obtain or document the required shots by Oct. 15 to the District's Office of the Attorney General. Prosecutors filed criminal charges against 41 parents and guardians, leading to hearings yesterday in D.C. Superior Court.
Throughout the morning and afternoon inside Judge Robert E. Morin's courtroom, the adults stood nervously before the bench alongside their court-appointed attorneys and entered pleas of guilty or not guilty. "This is something new to me," said Tina Smith, 32, who added that she did not know that her daughter, a freshman at Anacostia Senior High School, needed a tuberculosis shot. "I just wish it'd be over with."
The charges were part of a recent push by schools, courts and health officials to compel parents and guardians to get their children immunized and to cut down on truancy. Students who have not received their shots or booster doses against tetanus, chickenpox, hepatitis B and other diseases
are prohibited from attending school. The 41 parents and guardians were charged with violations of the Compulsory School Attendance Act.
Under the 1990 law, parents who fail to make sure that their children attend school regularly can be fined as much as $100 and jailed for up to five days for each offense. After their hearings, some parents took their children to a third-floor conference room inside the Superior Court building, where the Department of Health set up an immunization station. About 10 students received shots there, officials said.
Several parents complained that they had, in fact, gotten their children properly immunized, and they blamed the school system for losing or mishandling the records. "I know there are neglectful parents, but I'm not one of them," said Daniel Logan, 41, who said his 15-year-old son, a student at Coolidge Senior High School, was immunized. Michael Taylor and his wife, Matilda, said their 18-year-old son, a senior at Coolidge, also had obtained the necessary shots. They said the school mishandled the records. "They should have had their records up-to-date," Matilda Taylor said.
Ralph Neal, assistant superintendent for student and school support services, said that school officials "stand behind the fact that parents had not come forward to present their information to the school so that the school nurse could clear them." Some parents said they were rattled by the experience of appearing before a judge under the threat of fines and jail time. After their names and cases were called, the parents and guardians stood next to their attorneys and listened quietly while a clerk told them: "You have the right to remain silent, and you have the right to an attorney."
"It was humiliating," Susaron Simms said after her hearing. Simms said she received a notice to come to court after she had gotten her 16-year-old son, a sophomore at Spingarn Senior High, immunized. "It's really not fair to all the parents, because all parents are not alike," she said. Of the 41 parents and guardians ordered to appear in Family Court, 34 showed.
Assistant Attorney General Rachele Gaines said authorities would obtain warrants to arrest those who failed to appear. By the end of the day, about three bench warrants were issued against missing parents or guardians; the others had their hearings rescheduled.
"This is not about being vindictive," Gaines said. "The onus is on the parent to take responsibility and do what they need to do in order to make sure their child is enrolled and attending school." Last school year, city prosecutors filed 98 cases against parents for a range of violations under the school attendance law. The office offers eligible parents enrollment in a deferred sentencing program to avoid jail time. Of last school year's 98 cases, two parents were sentenced to three days in jail after failing the program.
http://www.drugawareness.org/Archives/Survivors/record0081.html
7/13/2003
Horror story of forced drugging
Ritalin/Adderall
"It seemed that the more medicine they used, the worse he got."
If a stranger on the street came up to me and my child with a package of cocaine and offered to give my child a free month’s supply, I’d have him arrested.
AFTER I beat the living mess out of him. How DARE someone I don’t know offer dangerous, mind altering drugs to my child with me standing right there? Yet I sat there in that school psychologist’s office when my son was a mere five years old listening to this woman I’d never met before tell me my son had Attention Deficit Disorder and needed to be put on Ritalin so that he could concentrate more in class, stop fidgeting and disrupting. I sat forward in my seat, a confused look on my face. Fidgeting? Disrupting? Lack of concentration? I voiced my concern to the psychologist that there
was a health problem with my son, that two years earlier he and our family had suffered through a severe toxic poisoning of carbon monoxide for almost three months that left everyone dazed for some time afterwards. Perhaps, I told her, he was simply having after effects of the poisoning and wasn’t quite himself yet. I’d already heard from a neurologist that toxic poisoning can cause possible brain damage, concentration difficulties and irritability. Could that not be a possibility? Definitely not, she stated. She had observed Daniel in class many times and he had all the classic signs of ADHD, and was certain it was Daniel’s difficulty. She said that she had spoken with the teacher and the teacher agreed with her. No, she said, Daniel needed to be put on Ritalin to control his outbursts and concentration problems.
She gave me a form she had filled out showing a long list of symptoms, each with a nasty little checkmark beside it that she had filled out and signed while observing Daniel, and I was to give it to the pediatrician when asking for my son to be put on the medication.
Still skeptical, I didn’t make an appointment for my son right away. I saw no signs of ADHD at home. Yes, he had a temper, but what child doesn’t? Yes, he fought with his brother and sisters. But what child doesn’t? He could sit and watch an entire thirty minutes of cartoons on Sunday, he could sit and look at a comic book about Spiderman for over twenty minutes and not make a peep.
My son? ADHD?? Not in this lifetime, I remember thinking.
Two weeks later, the school psychologist called me at home asking me if I’d had a chance to get to the pediatrician. I told her I was still thinking about my options.
To this day, I can remember the chill down the back of my neck when the next words out of her mouth were a stern “Now, Mrs. Rosecrans, refusing to cooperate with the school system is not benefiting you or your son. We may have to move him to a Special Education class if you’re not willing to put his education first, and in some states that’s considered child abuse.” I gripped the phone hard. The mere words “child abuse” brought on visuals of social service workers poking through my house, asking me millions of questions about how I fed the children, how I disciplined the children, forcing me and my husband to take parenting classes, and the possibility that they could even yank my child out of my home. I’d seen it happen to others. I’d heard the horror stories at Head Start a year earlier from other parents who dared go against the school. I was TERRIFIED. Just the mere thought of my little boy’s face laying on a bed in some foster home crying because Mommy wasn’t there filled my eyes with tears instantly. I choked out quietly that I would speak to the pediatrician as soon as possible. Satisfied, the psychologist let me go. I sent a letter to the school the very next morning confirming that I would do as I was asked and take Daniel to the pediatrician for a checkup and possible medication. Once again, though, a few days later, the horrors of pumping my child with medications without a full research into other possibilities scared me worse.
So I began my own research into brain injury due to toxic poisonings, near drownings and asphyxiation. Sure enough, my son had symptoms related to brain injury, and we already suspected his father had possible brain injury as well.
Not even two weeks after the call, I got a letter from my son’s teacher, stating that she had received my note about taking my son to the doctor and seeking advice on medications, and that she had not heard anything about it yet and needed to know more. I felt pushed again. I called my son’s teacher, who told me that since the school psychologist who was trained to recognize ADHD stated Daniel was definitely an ADHD child, he simply had to be placed on medication that would CERTAINLY help him and help his grades or be placed in a special education class.
Again, I felt severely pressured, the undertones being “OR WE”RE GOING TO REPORT YOU”. So I made an appointment with my son’s pediatrician. Without so much as five minutes alone with my son, she handed me a prescription for Ritalin, smiled, and told me to contact her in two weeks to give an update on his progress. Then she simply left the room.
Fearing reprisal by Child Protective, and after an assurance from my son’s pediatrician that Ritalin was prescribed daily for thousands of children all over the United States, I reluctantly asked my baby to put medication in his mouth and tiny body that was made from a derivative of cocaine. No information from the doctor about side effects, nor from the pharmacist. Just a cold piece of paper that read like scientific reports not meant for lay people to understand. Well, that and the words “Effectiveness in children under the age of 18 has not been established”.
Yeah, that one got me scared, but not as scared as having my son yanked from me. The first two weeks, my son was a zombie. Just what they wanted, a quiet, compliant child. But there was no warmth there anymore. No heart. No fire.
He didn’t even seem like my son anymore. After that, the symptoms came back, this time with a vengeance. Another drug, Adderal, was added. Then another, Clonadine. Then the Ritalin was discontinued, and Wellbutrin added. Adderal removed, Zyprexa added.
It seemed that the more medicine they used, the worse he got. OH he’d be fine for a few weeks. But then it was like uncaging a monster. He started screaming. Waking up in the middle of the night hearing “voices”. Psychotic episodes began to get more frequent. He had intense rage episodes brought on by nothing, destroying furniture and trying to kill himself and others.
Finally, I removed my son from all medications. During the withdrawal, my son got worse. His father was going through the same thing, and suddenly I have a knock on my door from Social Services, stating my son has reported being belted by his father and that my son is not on medications as he is supposed to be. OH MY LORD, I thought, I’VE BEEN REPORTED FOR CHILD ABUSE!!! A check of everything from our bedrooms, our bathrooms, even to our closets and refrigerators left them satisfied that my kids were at least healthy and happy, but they were concerned about the medicine situation. I told the workers that I felt my son was being harmed by it. They said I needed counseling and that they would be back in touch. Fearing the worse, I packed up my two boys and left the state. Situations had already gotten so bad between their father and I we could no longer hold a decent conversation without either him or our son losing their temper and going into a rage. There was no more marriage. All my energy had been focused on a child who was threatening death and a husband that fed off my son’s anger with his own.
Once I got to New Mexico, and my son off the drugs, he seemed to calm some.
Even start showing signs of the sweet, funny, delightful little boy I knew I’d given birth to. After a month or so, it became obvious to me that my marriage was over. I wanted my two girls who I had left in New York with their father and grandmother to be with me. So a nasty custody battle ensued, with Child Protective, this time in New Mexico, combing every inch of my house to assure the children were safe.
Daniel again started having difficulties in school, unable to concentrate, and fidgety. Again, the same nightmare. Yet this school system was contacted by Child Protective in NY who advised them that my son should have been on medications, and again I was immediately pushed into drugging
my son.
The strain was simply too much for the little fellow and he ended up in a psychiatric hospital for a few weeks to gain control of his emotions, brought on I suspected, by the new drug they had him on. SEREQUEL, a wonder drug, I was told. Since my son was in the hospital and I was unable to attend the child custody hearing in New York, I lost custody of my precious babies. Their father, accused of child abuse by me and by Child Protective, was given custody of my children simply because I could not be there due to my son’s emergency hospitalization by a judge who never met me, never heard my side, and never gave me a chance to reschedule.
Five agonizing months later, I was given custody back of my children due to their father’s inability to control Daniel and happily took them back to New Mexico.
Once I got my son back to New Mexico, I found out another psychiatrist had agreed my son was ADHD and had put him on Tegretol and Klonopin. I immediately removed the medicine and it brought out rage episodes while my son was detoxing from its effects. By this time, my son had several “labels” by different doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists. The main one being ADHD. They added Bipolar, ODD, IDS, and even Learning Disorder, completely ignoring my pleas that the child be checking for brain injury due to the carbon monoxide poisoning. They all seemed certain that my son was indeed ADHD and no one wanted to buck the trend.
Finally worn out from fighting Child Protective and school systems in two states, I felt myself wearing down, near to collapse. I moved me and my four children across country to Atlanta, Georgia to be with my mom and get her help. I had figured that if I said NOTHING to the schools, simply put my son in the age appropriate classes and show him security, love and affection, he’d do much better. I’d also made a promise to myself to find the best neurologist in the area and get his brain checked for damage.
When the records arrived from the other state, my son was instantly labeled “ADHD” by the school system, yanked from his normal class and put in Special Education. Once again Child Protective from THIS state came out to the house to demand I let them investigate to make sure the family was safe. They demanded I follow the instructions of the school psychiatrist and put my son on Zoloft, Risperdal and Adderal to control his outbursts, lack of concentration and his ADHD. I felt so defeated. So abused by three states and their systems put in place to PROTECT families and children.
Despite everything I had to go through in the last three years, losing my home, losing my security, having to support four children on my own financially and emotionally, despite having no social life and no one to turn to, I was still considering an unfit mother and under Child Protection once again in a third state, pushing me to medicate my son. After three more emergency hospitalizations, four different medications including Depakote, Clonadine and Neurontin, trying to convince dozens of teachers, psychiatrists and psychologists that my son had possible brain injury and NOT ADHD, after losing every dime I had taking care of four children with no child support, after months of research into brain injured children, I gave up.
I knew I had to move my children back to the State of New York where my ex husband would be forced to help me take care of their financial needs, their health needs, and their emotional needs. So back to NY we went. Immediately, I was placed back on Child Protective with the local county. Almost as fast, my son again started having psychotic episodes that forced hospitalizations, one in a hospital over 80 miles away due to, I was convinced, OVERMEDICATION.
I continued my research into brain injury and made my thoughts known to the psychiatrist on staff at the hospital my son was taken to, who dismissed it as ridiculous. At that center, he was abused, forced to wipe with shower curtains, locked in time out rooms until he wet his pants, given shots of Thorazaine along with doses of Benedryl by an undertrained staff to shut him up. After my complaints went unnoticed, I complained to the Office of Mental Health, who did a surprise inspection on the site, and found all the atrocities I and other parents had complained about and immediately forced the center to stop accepting children until the difficulties were resolved.
Three weeks of living hell for my baby, who by this time had been poked, prodded, examined and stolen from his mommy and siblings over seven times. A child who now longer trusted or wanted to comply with staff. Placed on Seroquel and Neurontin, he became a zombie again.
Seeing my son on a visit that day suddenly made me ANGRY. AND I MEAN I GOT MAD. I suddenly found myself demanding my son be given more attention. Demanding I get to talk to my son more often. Demanding to see his records, to which I was denied three times by the staff. Demanding that he be given a brain scan to test for injury before upping the dosage on his medication. To this day, I still have a recording of the doctor telling me that a brain scan would never be done at that facility and I should check into another venue for that, yet refused to decrease my son’s medication for it. I was even told by the staff social worker that Daniel’s problems were EMOTIONAL, caused by parents that were divorced, a mother that drug them across country three times, and a dysfunctional family life. I sure chewed her butt out that day, let me tell you. It felt GOOD.
Then the hospital threw my son out after three weeks because I was getting PUSHY. They claim the insurance company refused to pay for any further treatment, but the insurance company denied their statements, saying their own social worker had called to cancel Daniel’s treatment.
Three weeks after I weaned my son of yet another drug cocktail, he began symptoms of withdrawal, became violent. He was taken from me again and put in a hospital over 3 hours away. My heart still breaks every time I imagine that boy’s horror in that long ambulance drive taking him away from mommy again. There, the doctor listened to what I had to say about possible brain damage causing difficulties and medications causing symptoms to worsen. I even mentioned Dr. Gary Sach’s report concerning the “kindling effect” of medications being stronger and stronger until a raging fire spewed that was nearly uncontrollable.
He was sympathetic, but uninterested. He placed my son on Zoloft and a week later, I had him back. And again, the same pattern. Once again, back in my arms, I knew that medication was not working for my son. Yet this time I was under Social Services scrutiny almost daily, demanding to know whether or not I was giving my son the medication the doctor had prescribed. By this time, though, years of overmedication had brought on psychotic episodes and dangerous outbursts. I contacted KidsPeace in Romulus, NY, who agreed to accept the child to help me straighten out the medication difficulties, help me get a brain scan to determine if it was medical or emotional, and give my son needed counseling and assistance in controlling himself. Seemed like a WONDERFUL setup. Finally, somebody willing to help me. A facility willing to listen to ME. The only difficulty was that all entrants had to be under foster care through Social Services.
Breaking my heart badly, I broke down and asked the local Social Services to temporarily take custody of my son so that he could be placed in this residential treatment center to help him detoxify and learn the real cause of his troubles.
Over 80 miles away, we drove with our son, all of us crying, and placed our baby in these people’s 24 hour care. At first, everything was great. For three weeks he liked being secure, but the psychiatrist took him off all other medications and immediately put him on Zoloft and Risperdal. I spoke with the psychiatrist about my concerns of medications and why we couldn’t try brain scans and therapy.
What a SEVERELY different attitude I got from the day I signed my son over to these people. Suddenly once again I was told to mind my own business. That I was a mere mother, not educated in medicine or children’s therapies. I was told that they needed to stabilize him first, then brain scans would come later. Heartbroken, and basically told “don’t call us, we’ll call you”, cut off from my son except for two fifteen minute calls a week and two visits for a few hours twice a month, I became determined to find out for myself my rights. I put my full soul and heart into research.
For four months, I spent hours on the computer reading anything I could about medications, ADHD, Bipolar, therapy, brain injury and even parental rights. I started getting MADDER. The fight came back. The determination to be a part of my son’s therapy and treatment went to front burner. Again, I was met with extreme prejudice. Met with barriers and statements to stop being so pushy and let them do their jobs. My son got physically abused and sexually abused at the site. The psychiatrist REFUSED to remove the Risperdal from my son, but reluctantly removed the Zoloft after I threatened to drive to the site, find him in his office and sit on him and force him to read pamphlets stating Zoloft was NOT meant for children. I was SERIOUS, too, lemme tell you. That tone came through the phone CLEARLY. After all, THIS IS MY son.
NOT Child Protective’s. NOT KidsPeace. After the Zoloft was removed, he showed a remarkable difference. It was like night and day. He was suddenly able to participate in groups more often, enjoying things like reading and TV again, and even laughing more. To further enforce my rights, I demanded more visitation rights. Demanded more phone calls.
I refused to back down. Daniel started getting Excellents and Goods instead of Poor and Failing’s. I also arranged for my son to be taken to Syracuse for a proper brain scan thanks to my ex husband’s insurance on my son. HALLELUIAH, we finally had the proof we needed My son was INDEED brain
injured as I’d been SCREAMING about to Child Protective, doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, nosy social workers, undertrained overworked teachers, neighbors and bus monitors. I was yelling it to ANYONE that would listen. He was NOT ADHD, OR Bipolar. I IMMEDIATELY demanded my son be taken OFF all medications and rely only on therapy and ways to help him. The new staff psychiatrist refused, stating she needed a full neuropsychiatric workup to prove he didn’t have ADHD. So I set up a full battery of tests through Dr. Thomas Griffiths of Syracuse, an expert in brain injury.
Sure enough, my son’s tests proved that he simply could not ingest information as quickly as other children due to brain injury, could not retain that information as easily, and would get frustrated because he was a gifted child who knew something was wrong.
BINGO. THE PROOF I NEEDED. MY SON WAS NOT ADHD, or BIPOLAR. I HAPPILY and personally presented that proof to Child Protective, the staff at KidsPeace who by now resented my interference with their program, resented my pushiness to be involved with my son’s treatment, and resented my stern warnings that I would no longer be treated like a second class citizen.) to neighbors, to anyone in three states that had EVER given me static about being a lowly mother. I was certain that now I would finally get the right treatment for my son.
You’d think so, right?: WRONG. The psychiatrist STILL refused to take my son off the Risperdal, even after a full team meeting I had to sit through and listen to her tell me and the full staff that what was WRONG with my son was emotional, that his parent’s difficulties and divorce and instabilities were driving Daniel’s emotions, listen to her state the ‘wonderful benefits” of the Risperdal and how Daniel was doing SO much better on it. With Child Protective listening in on the phone, I firmly and angrily stated that not only did we have PROOF that Daniel was a brain injured child and NOT ADHD, we had PROOF that I’d downloaded and printed out showing the facts that certain medications actually bring ON psychotic episodes in children. CAUSED aggravations. I had PROOF that the medicine he was on wasn’t even supposed to be USED by children under 18 and PROOF from Daniel’s neuropsychiatry reports that he simply couldn’t function in a regular class and needed more one on one, and circumstantial proof that by removing the Zoloft, Daniel was responding better, not that the Risperdal was working better.
I laid in to each and every member on that staff that had given me a stone wall before I got that proof. The last six years of pain and feeling of uselessness came pouring out and I asserted my rights as my son’s mother. THIS TIME, I knew, I would NOT BACK DOWN. The psychiatrist held her ground. Risperdal was simply doing him good. The next thing I have to listen to is her psychologist partner, a Sigmund Freud wannabe who obviously did not have the research and background experience I had on the topics of toxic poisoning, brain injury and ADHD tell me that it was his professional opinion that my son’s brain injury had nothing to do with his outburst, that he’d “studied” carbon poisoning online and found nothing to tie in Daniel’s symptoms with the actual disease, and that he agreed with the psychiatrist, it was simply us as parents who failed our son by divorcing, by child abuse and by moving cross country and that he was going to turn over all the information to a doctor he knew in Upstate NY that was an expert. I looked at this Bugs Bunny figure of a staff psychologist and smirked “Well, you know what? His DOCTOR seems to think he DOES have brain injury, and those little dark specks on his SPEC scan sure AIN’T SPIDERWEBS, are they.” Child Protective suddenly became compliant. They backed me at that meeting.
So the psychiatrist agreed reluctantly to remove one milligram of the four my son was on for a month to see if it made a difference. Then she had the nerve to tell me that my son would defiantly show signs of withdrawal and was I prepared to increase the dosage to keep him from hurting himself or
others? I looked at this woman with a disbelief in my eyes I’m sure she saw, shook my head sadly and said “Hun, what do you think WITHDRAWAL of drugs IS? OF COURSE he’s going to have symptoms. Like ANY addiction, whether it’s alcohol, nicotine or drugs. How ridiculous can you be?????” With that, the meeting ended, and once I got home and had time to think, I called the psychiatrist who REFUSED to read medical reports, look at proof of brain injury or heed advice from another psychiatrist who specialized in brain injured children and left a rather harsh message, stating she had SIX WEEKS to wean my son from the Risperdal or I was coming in full barrel with a lawyer and a malpractice suit.
The very next day, I was called by Child Protective, who has now agreed to give me my son back, stating they agreed with me that I was right all along on my son’s actual diagnosis. On that day, I sat on the floor, unable to answer, phone still in my hand, years of fighting, years of severe anger outbursts from a child overmedicated and not knowing why his little body was hurting so bad, missed weeks and weeks of not being able to hold my baby boy, and years of battling for my rights as the child’s parent, nights and nights of holding a crying child because he didn’t know what was happening, years of struggling just to make ends meet and constantly worrying about rent, utilities, food, years of research to finally prove my point all came flooding out, silent tears flowing down my cheeks as I’d finally, I’d FINALLY won. Or HAD I? Just earlier that week, I had a note from my youngest boy’s teacher, who stated my little clown could not and would not sit still in class, and perhaps could benefit from a drug like Ritalin. I busted out laughing, still holding the phone, not caring if Child Protective heard or not, and FRANKLY, my dear, I didn’t give a damn.
That was seven months ago, and I’m STILL under court order to drug my son even though I have moved to another state.
Cynthia Gallaher
2144 Memorial Ave
Roanoke, VA 24015
540-397-2255
CrazyRnIRE@aol.com
Vaccines can do no wrong. Even though 13 kids needed treatment in a hospital right after they were vaccinated, it doesn't mean the vaccines had anything to do with it. Maybe it was the salad they had for lunch.....they can be so dangerous you know....On Wednesday, Health Minister Jane Hutt said there were no grounds for suspecting any fault with the BCG vaccine which left 13 pupils needing treatment.
Again...medical treatment at school. Is there a shortage of doctors offices?
'Vaccine' schoolboy goes home
The teenager at the centre of a vaccination scare in Aberystwyth has been discharged from hospital. Dominic Hamer, 13, returned home at lunchtime on Friday. The Ysgol Gyfun Penweddig pupil suffered a severe allergic reaction to a BCG vaccine being administered to students at the school on Monday. He was admitted to the town's Bronglais hospital and spent a night in intensive care before being transferred to a general ward. Two other pupils, who were also treated in hospital, were discharged on Wednesday. Another 10 students also received medical help at Bronglais after suffering "adverse effects" to the injections.
Nearly 120 pupils at the comprehensive school were being injected with the BCG vaccine, which combats tuberculosis. Brian Thomas, head of corporate service for Ceredigion and Mid Wales Trust, said: "Dominic was discharged at lunchtime (on Friday) and he had made a full recovery. "The other two children who spent time in hospital were discharged on Wednesday." Ceredigion NHS Trust is also investigating and the batch of vaccine has been withdrawn. On Wednesday, Health Minister Jane Hutt said there were no grounds for suspecting any fault with the BCG vaccine which left 13 pupils needing treatment.
Ms Hutt told assembly members at Cardiff Bay: "The National Public Health Service is investigating the circumstances and the initial indications are that there are no grounds for suspecting that there is any fault with this batch of the vaccine." The minister added that the vaccine batch had been used extensively without any reaction of the kind experienced at the Aberystwyth school.
She said that the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency's initial assessment also indicated that, "this is an isolated incident and there's no reason to suspect there's a problem with the vaccine." Dominic was said to have had an anaphylactic shock, which is defined as a very sudden serious physical reaction caused by an allergy. The trust has said it is working closely with the school to ensure that pupils and parents receive any information or support they require. The daughter of Plaid Cymru Ceredigion MP Simon Thomas was another pupil who had a reaction to the vaccine.
He said the mater needed to be examined "as a matter of urgency."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/wales/mid_/4026147.stm
Published: 2004/11/19 15:53:28 GMT
© BBC MMIV
More medical experimentation at school.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/center/mission/articles/flumist.html
CIDRAP to participate in nasal flu vaccine study
Two CIDRAP staff members, Kris Moore, MD, MPH, and Elizabeth McClure, MD, are preparing to be part of a national multicenter study on the impact of administering FluMist influenza vaccine in the elementary school setting to eligible school-aged children. FluMist, which is given via nasal spray (no shots are involved), is currently licensed for use in children who are at least 5 years of age.
The Minnesota portion of the study will be conducted in St. Cloud next school year (2004-05). Drs. Moore and McClure anticipate enrolling nine elementary schools. FluMist vaccine will be offered free-of-charge in the school setting to children in three "target" schools, and the remaining six schools will serve as "control" schools (where vaccine will not be offered free in the school setting).
Information on illness rates among school children and their family members will be collected during the peak of the influenza season. The rates in the target and control schools will be compared. In addition, school absenteeism rates will be monitored in all participating schools during the entire school year.
The overall goal of the study is to determine whether giving FluMist in the school setting can reduce school absenteeism rates and/or illness rates in family members during the annual influenza season. Addressing this question will provide important public health information and will be used to inform national childhood influenza vaccination policies.
The study is sponsored by MedImmune, maker of FluMist vaccine.
Area schools offer on-site health clinics
Published: April 4, 2005
http://www.bendbulletin.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=16029
By Ernestine Bousquet
The Bulletin
MADRAS — While his mom waited, Clint Haugen, 12, a sixth-grader at Jefferson County Middle School, got his eyes and ears checked and his reflexes tested during a sports physical exam at a school-based health clinic in Jefferson County. Clint was heading back to class in less than an hour after getting a clean bill of health to run track. The full-scale health clinic, which is temporarily located in a mobile home trailer behind Madras High School, is available to all students in Jefferson County.
Students in La Pine also have a health care center at their doorstep, where they can seek treatment for illnesses and injuries and get immunizations, physicals and wellness exams. The centers are also targeting adolescents, providing a safe haven where they can access mental health care treatment, find out about the downfalls of drug and alcohol use or get answers about nutrition or how their body functions.
Run by the county health departments in each community, the school-based health clinics are bringing health care to youth who can't afford it, who want to deal with health problems privately or who have no place else to go. The goal is to keep students healthy and in school, health officials say. While the health centers charge for services, they will see anyone regardless of their ability to pay.
Subject: Michigan school has mercury spill
Battle Creek school remains closed following mercury spill
(Battle Creek, May 11, 2005, 4:23 p.m.) A Battle Creek school will be closed for a second consecutive day on Thursday, following a mercury spill at the building. W.K. Kellogg Middle School was evacuated Tuesday following the spill in a classroom.
Authorities say a student found a capsule of mercury inside his garage at home and apparently brought it to school. At some point the capsule broke, spilling two to four ounces of mercury on the
floor. The fire department and a hazmat crew were called to the school.
Ten students and two employees were decontaminated as a precaution. Some of them had the mercury on their legs, while others had it on their arms. They didn't suffer any injuries. The school was closed Wednesday and will remain closed Thursday as crews continue to clean up the mess.
Even more terrible a second Michigan school (high school) had a copy cat incident the next day! This time two students were caught playing with mercury in class. This is just nuts!
Preserving Vaccination Exemption Choice:The Legal And Scientific Issues
By Tim O'Shea, D.C.
http://www.todayschiropractic.com/archives/mar_apr_02/preserving_vacc_choice
.html
In every state of the union except two (Mississippi and West Virginia), parents have the legal right to exempt their children from all vaccinations. Whether or not others disagree with that decision is immaterial to that right. In light of the social and political opposition to such a choice, parents who would embark upon this unpopular course of action often have to face much greater obstacles than just learning about the dangers of vaccines.
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The parents can become victims of uninformed people in authority who think they can enforce their own illegal opinions upon the public. Dr. Colleen Conger-Brass and Dr. Michael Brass found themselves in just such a situation. They have a 9-year-old son Sean, who is in the third grade at a San Jose, Calif., school. On Feb. 27, 2001, they received a phone call from the school principal, with whom they have a good relationship.
The principal informed the couple that they had a choice: Either Sean must be put back into another grade, or else he must be kept at home, indefinitely. The reason? Sean's teacher was pregnant and her OB-GYN had just informed her and the principal that being exposed to an unvaccinated child would place her fetus at risk of birth defects.
This is a reference to the extremely rare possibility of birth defects supposedly possible for a woman who contracts rubella in the first four months of pregnancy. The pregnant teacher had been vaccinated for rubella with the standard MMR shots.
Not wishing their son's school progress to be disrupted, the parents opted to keep Sean at home. For the next week, they agonized about the situation, trying to find some legal or scientific way out of the dilemma. It was shocking and baffling to them that their child could be suddenly deprived of his education just because they had exercised their legal right not to vaccinate.
During this time, the parents contacted the Santa Clara County Health Department to see what its stance was. The department responded immediately with a letter, which stated that in all of Santa Clara County there had only been two cases of rubella since 1992, with the exception of a small epidemic that occurred in a local jail. Two cases in nine years had been recorded in a county with over one million people.
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The letter also quoted California Health and Safety Codes, Section 12035, that provides for a child to be excluded from school if he has been exposed to a communicable disease. And in this case, the Santa Clara County Health Department stated that obviously "there is no reason to believe an exposure to rubella has occurred." Still, the school persisted in excluding the child. The principal was relying on the incorrect, and wildly unscientific, opinion of the OB-GYN, who had sent the school a letter apparently claiming that there was a high likelihood of birth defects from Sean being in the same classroom with the vaccinated pregnant teacher. The parents, at their wit's end, were given no time estimate about how long this arbitrary and illegal exclusion would continue.
Finally, on March 6, the principal called from the school to inform the Drs.Brass that Sean could return to school because the teacher had left, apparently at the advice of her OB-GYN. It seems likely that the school's lawyers had informed the principal of the school's tenuous legal position in excluding a legally exempted and perfectly healthy child from attending school. So now everything is fine, right? The family has to suffer great emotional trauma, and the child loses part of his education while those in authority figure out what the law is. No harm, no foul, right?
Let's take a closer look at what really happened here.
The unconscionable situation that this doctor imagines he can arbitrarily impose upon these parents calls up two areas of concern:
* issues of law and
* issues of science.
Issues of Law
Article 3, Section 6025, of the California Health and Safety Codes states:
"Any pupil age 18 months or older who has received all the immunizations required for his/her age . or who has documented a permanent medical exemption or a permanent beliefs exemption to immunization . shall be admitted unconditionally as a pupil to a given public or private elementary or secondary school, [or] child care center."
This law is very clear. These parents have signed the California exemption form, as provided by state and federal law. These laws are not subject to interpretation by unilateral, arbitrary self-appointed guardians of the public health. The issues of exemption from vaccination have been decided in meticulous detail by the U.S. Department of Public Health, as well as by the California Department of Health and Safety, after years of study.
This doctor sought to place himself above state and federal law by imagining that he has had some new insight into the whole medical-legal arena of immunization which heretofore had never occurred to any of the experts, and luckily he has arrived just in time to save us. Such hubris is egregious enough in itself, but what is even more remarkable is that the school principal followed this ill-considered course of action without question, and he immediately removed the child from the classroom. This action is the second, independent decision for which the school may now bear responsibility and liability for violations of the parents' rights to education without discrimination.
In practice outside New York City, attorney James Filenbaum specializes in cases involving violations of parents' rights to exemption from immunization and in vaccine damages compensation cases. In a telephone discussion about the Sean Brass case, Filenbaum explained some of the possible dangers such a school may be looking at by relying on an incorrect and untenable medical opinion. For a school to deprive a perfectly healthy child of his legal right to education because of some highly speculative and very eccentric medical opinions may violate civil rights that are specifically defined in federal law (Federal Title 28, Section 1983).
Issues of Science
The doctor's position may be summarized as follows: He has the notion that since the teacher is pregnant, she is susceptible to getting rubella from the unvaccinated child, and transferring the disease to her unborn fetus, resulting in a likelihood of birth defects-in spite of the fact that the teacher herself has taken the MMR vaccine.
Trying to follow the logic of such reasoning is a daunting task. Since the teacher is vaccinated, shouldn't that make her immune to the disease? If she is immune to the disease, what difference does it make even if this child gets the disease? Wasn't the purpose of the vaccine to protect her from the disease? So now the doctor wants the child to be vaccinated with that same vaccine in order to protect the child from the disease? But if vaccination didn't protect the teacher, why would it protect the student?
First of all, this doctor is creating undue hysteria by imagining multiple events, each of which has only a remote possibility of occurring alone. The chances of them occurring in sequence are infinitesimal. Those events are:
1. That the child will get rubella in the next few weeks, before the teacher becomes four months pregnant.
2. That the teacher would catch rubella from the child before he stayed home sick.
3. That the teacher would spread the disease to the fetus, and that would cause a birth defect.
Let's look at the first event. The student is not sick now. In a county of one million people, there had been only two cases of rubella in the past nine years.The incidence of rubella in the U.S. is now at its lowest rate in history (Merck Manual, p. 237). The rare danger of a mother getting rubella during pregnancy is only in the first 16 weeks, as far as a fetus is concerned (Merck Manual, p. 2185). The teacher was already at 12 weeks. So what are the chances of this healthy student being one of the two in a million cases of rubella in nine years during the next four weeks? You couldn't place the bet!
One can't help but wonder: Where would Sean get the rubella from, if all the other kids in the school were vaccinated? Doesn't their vaccinations work?
<http://www.todayschiropractic.com/archives/mar_apr_02/preserving_vacc_choice3.jpg>
Now, consider the second event: The teacher catches rubella from the student. But how could that happen? She's already been vaccinated. And let's not forget the prime fact here: This child is totally healthy. It would take a lot more than medical paranoia to make him sick. Finally, examine the third event: What are the chances of birth defects? According to the latest edition of the Merck Manual, the chances of birth defects are less than 3 percent as a result of the mother getting the vaccine during early pregnancy (p. 2328). The chances of birth defects from the mother contracting natural rubella disease are so low they have not been calculated. No figure is even estimated in Merck.
So, taking all three of these events together, they would have to happen in sequence in order for this student to cause a birth defect in the teacher's fetus. Such a likelihood is astronomically low. The chances are much greater that the woman would be killed in an auto accident during the same time period. It would make more sense to take away her driver's license. Let's introduce some rational discourse into this overblown situation. Virtually all medical sources agree that rubella has historically been a mild, self-limiting childhood disease which required no treatment. Most baby boomers got the disease, had slight discomfort for a week and now have full immunity for life.
In the early 1960s along came the MMR vaccine, a trivalent that was never tested as such (Wakefield). Mendelsohn estimates that an 85 percent immunity to this mild disease existed before the vaccine was introduced. So they needed a selling point-a big scare. Suddenly, with no solid statistics of incidence, the remote possibility of fetal damage became the slogan that won FDA approval and inclusion into the mandated schedule. Since then, we've never looked back.
Immunity and Side Effects
All these shenanigans still wouldn't be so bad if the vaccine were harmless. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Even Merck admits that the vaccine only confers immunity for "about 11 years." That's not immunity. Real immunity is for life. Real immunity is something only the human body can create after getting a disease.
The problem with rubella is that the vaccinated can still contract it after the artificial immunity wears off. But by that time, they're usually adults, and the atypical version is a much more serious disease in adulthood. You may be surprised to learn that we traded a mild disease that has been around for centuries, causing very little trouble, for a serious mutation that is doing its part in the de-evolution of the human genome.
Viera Scheibner, Ph.D., the premier Australian researcher in the area of vaccinations, hammers home the most devastating side effect of experimental vaccines like MMR and DPT. Worse than the side effects listed, even including the occasional death, is the evolutionary cul de sac in which ourddisregard of the scientific method is entrapping us.
Scheibner likens what vaccines are doing to our collective human DNA-our genome-to making a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox of something. Look at it after 10 generations, then after 50 generations, of constant de-evolution, diluting and weakening the DNA that took our species a million years to evolve. So what do we learn from case of Sean Brass? It is hoped that we will learn the rules of law and science that come to bear on this situation. These parents had a sovereign right to choose not to vaccinate their son. Even those of us who may not agree with that decision must agree at least to their right to make it. Because those personal freedoms that we do not defend are being inexorably eroded away, day by day, by a thousand little media slurs and a thousand shrugged shoulders.
What would be the chances of the first 10 constitutional amendments making it through Congress today? Slim to none. Most people don't even know what the Bill of Rights is. America is the only country in the history of the world that would even consider placing all that freedom, and all that power, in the hands of the people. Most Americans seem to think it's fine to hand these hard-won, precious rights back to the government, because they're too busy to educate themselves about the principles involved. Study vaccines? That's my doctor's job. I can't be bothered to learn what's good for my children and then
demand it.
The right to choose chiropractic care? That's up to my insurance. I can't be bothered to learn what's good for my body and then demand it. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
About the author: Tim O'Shea, D.C., a 1986 Life Chiropractic College West graduate, is an author and lecturer in the areas of chiropractic, nutrition and vaccines. He has been in private practice in San Jose, Calif., since 1990. He is the author of The Sanctity of Human Blood and presents seminars in the U.S. and Europe. For more information, visit his web site at www.thedoctorwithin.com.
C Copyright 2002 Today's Chiropractic
_____
January 10, 2006
Dear parents/guardians,
This letter is to notify you that there have been about 30 cases of chickenpox reported at Longfellow School. According to the school nurse, Ms. Janet Rivard, the majority of the students in the school have been vaccinated with one dose of varicella (chickenpox) vaccine. However, since one dose of the vaccine is only about 70-90% effective for preventing chickenpox, it is not unusual to see chickenpox disease in children who have been vaccinated. Although chickenpox in vaccinated children is usually a milder form of the disease, vaccinated children who become infected with the disease are still contagious. Therefore, the Maine Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is working with Longfellow School to prevent more cases and is offering a free vaccination clinic on Thursday, January 12, 2006 for all Longfellow students at the school during regular school hours. All students are encouraged to receive the varicella vaccination, unless they have a documented history of chickenpox disease. You may accompany your child to the clinic if you wish, but this is not necessary as long as your child has a signed consent form.
Background on Chickenpox
Chickenpox is a very contagious infection caused by a virus. It is spread from person to person by direct contact or through the air from an infected person’s coughing or sneezing. It causes a blister-like rash, itching, tiredness, and fever. Most children recover without any problems. Chickenpox can be spread for 1-2 days before the rash starts and until all blisters are crusted. It takes about 10-21 days after contact with an infected person for someone to develop chickenpox.
What should you do?
Maine CDC strongly encourages you to have your child receive the varicella vaccine at the free vaccination clinic if your child has not had chickenpox in the past and has either never received the chickenpox vaccination or has only had one dose of the vaccine. Although your childs’s provider administers chickenpox vaccine in his/her office, this vaccine is provided by the state and is for routine immunization rather than outbreak control. Therefore, if you would like your child to receive a second dose, he/she should be vaccinated at the school.
If your child or anyone in your household currently has symptoms that look like chickenpox (If your child is infected and has received one dose of chickenpox vaccination, he or she may only have a few red spots but no blisters. These spots may look like insect bites.)
1. Contact your regular health care provider to discuss your child's symptoms.
2. Contact the school nurse to report your child's chickenpox.
3. Avoid contact with others who have not had chickenpox or who are not vaccinated against chickenpox. They should not attend school, day care, work, parties and/or other gatherings until the blisters become crusted (about 5-7 days after rash appears).
4. Keep all chickenpox spots and blisters and other wounds clean and watch for possible signs of infection; including increasing redness, swelling, drainage and pain at the blister site.
5. If you or anyone else in your household has a weakened immune system or is pregnant and has never had chickenpox or the vaccine, talk with your doctor immediately.
6. Thoroughly wash your hands and children’s hands after wiping noses and before eating or preparing food. Discourage children from sharing food, cups, and spoons, drinking straws or toys that they put in their mouths.
Please review, sign, and return the attached form to the school.
If you have any further question or concerns, you can contact Ms. Rivard or call the Maine Immunization Program at 1-800-867-4775.
Application/Mississippi National Guard Plans WMD Drill
http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2006_4_18.html#D23DFCAF
Mississippi National Guard Plans WMD Drill
Members of the Mississippi National Guard tomorrow are scheduled to conduct a drill involving the suspected release of a lethal agent, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 27, 2005). After an unidentified biological agent or chemical is detected in Canton, Quick Reactionary Force teams are to land by helicopter and secure the area around the city's Multipurpose Complex. The 47th Civil Support Team, which was formed last year to deal with WMD incidents, will hunt for the agent. Another 70 soldiers are expected to provide additional support. The exercise is scheduled to last around three hours, ending when no indications are found of a dangerous substance, AP reported (Associated Press, April 18).
Meanwhile, emergency and school officials in Gwinnett County, Ga., yesterday conducted a sarin attack exercise at a mock high school, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The exercise was a simulation of a gas attack on a school of 2,000 students. Sarin was released at the entrance to "Suwanee High School" - in actuality a schools training center - killing a faculty member and injuring a number of students. The drill involved county police and fire personnel, school officials, and officials from the cities of Duluth and Suwanee, the Journal-Constitution reported. "It went real well," said county Fire Department spokesman Thomas Rutledge. "I think agencies walked away with a better understanding of each others' duties, responsibilities and capabilities" (John Ghirardini, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 18).
Media Release From Tony Abbott
The Commonwealth Government will fund the cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil®, for girls and women aged 12 to 26 from 2007.
Gardasil® will be put on the National Immunisation Programme on an ongoing basis for 12 to 13 year old girls to be delivered through schools. The Government will also fund a two year catch-up programme for 13 to 18 year old girls in schools and 18 to 26 year old women to be delivered through GPs.
The expected cost of the vaccine is $436 million between 2006-07 and 2009-10.
The initial submission from the vaccine’s maker, CSL, was considered by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) in early November. At that time the PBAC was unable to recommend funding of Gardasil due to concerns about its cost-effectiveness.
Given the possibility of introducing an immunisation program through schools in 2007, I asked the PBAC to consider a revised submission from CSL at an extraordinary meeting. I would like to thank the PBAC for agreeing to this unusual request.
CSL agreed to reduce the price of Gardasil and provided the PBAC with additional information about its long-term effectiveness. CSL has undertaken to make a substantial contribution to any booster program if it becomes necessary in the next 20 years and to the costs of setting up a national register to link vaccination data to later cervical screening records. The PBAC found that Gardasil is cost-effective at the new price offered.
All the usual PBAC processes have been undertaken in the consideration of the revised submission for Gardasil. The accelerated timeframe for consideration has not compromised the quality of the decision-making process.
The Commonwealth Government calls on state and territories governments to make every effort to ensure that arrangements are in place to implement a school-based immunisation program in 2007. We will also work with doctors’ groups to establish processes for vaccinations for eligible women who are no longer at school.
A school safety drill that included police officers in riot gear with weapons has caused concern among some parents who say it was too realistic and frightened some students.Police in the western Michigan community of Wyoming entered two classrooms at Lee Middle and High School on Thursday and announced there was a threat to the school, The Grand Rapids Press reported.
Students, who were unaware police were conducting a drill, were taken from the classroom into the halls, patted down by officers and asked what they had in their pockets, the newspaper said.
"Some of these kids were so scared, they just about wet their pants," said Marge Bradshaw, a parent with four children in Godfrey-Lee Schools. "I think it's pure wrong that the students and parents were not informed of this."
Apr 5, 2007 7:51 pm US/Eastern
13-Year-Old Arrested In School For Writing On DeskPrincipal Urges Cops To Arrest Girl For Writing 'Okay'Tanya Rivero
Reporting
(CBS) NEW YORK In this day and age where young students are frequently charged for serious school offenses such as possessing weapons, dealing drugs, or assaulting other students on school property, one Brooklyn teen's arrest may come as a surprise. A 13-year-old girl was handcuffed and placed under arrest in front of her classmates in Dyker Heights after she wrote "Okay" on her desk.
The "suspect," Chelsea Fraser, says she's sorry for scribbling the word on her desk, but both she and her mother are shocked at the punishment.
"I'm appalled, because here we have rapists, murderers, and you're taking a 13-year-old kid? Wasting valuable manpower to arrest a child who wrote on a desk?" Fraser's mother Diana Silva told CBS 2.
Police confirm that that's exactly what's written on her arrest record and for the crime, she's been charged with criminal mischief and the making of graffiti. Fraser says the day she marked her desk, she was wrongly grouped together with troublemakers who had plastered stickers all over the classroom.
Fraser was arrested at the Dyker Heights Intermediate School on March 30 along with three other male students. She says she was made to empty her pockets and take off her belt. Then she was handcuffed and led out of the school in front of her classmates and placed in the back of a police car.
"It was really embarrassing because some of the kids, they talk, and they're going to label me as a bad kid. But I'm really not," Fraser said. "I didn't know writing 'Okay' would get me arrested."
"All the kids were ... watching these three boys and my daughter being marched out with four -- they had four police officers -- walking them out, handcuffed," Silva said. "She goes to me, 'Mommy, these hurt!'"
The students were taken to the 68th Precinct station house where Silva says they were separated for three hours. "MY child is 13-years-old -- doesn't it stand that I'm supposed to be present for any questioning?" Silva said. "I'm watching my daughter, she's handcuffed to the pole. I ask the officer has she been there the entire time? She says, 'Yes.'"
On her report card, under conduct, Fraser has earned all "satisfactory" marks and one "excellent" mark.
"My daughter just wrote something on a desk. I would have her scrub it with Soft Scrub on a Saturday morning when she should be out playing, and maybe a day of in-house and a formal apology to the principal," Silva said.
CBS 2 contacted both the NYPD and the Board of Education for a response. The police say the arrests followed a request by the school's principal. The Board of Education said the matter is under investigation, adding that graffiti was found on several desks.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_095170448.html
http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/teachers-stage-fake-gun-attack-on-kids/20070513232409990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001Teachers Stage Fake Gun Attack on Kids
AP
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (May 14) - Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.
The mock attack Thursday night was intended as a learning experience and lasted five minutes during the weeklong trip to a state park, said Scales Elementary School Assistant Principal Don Bartch, who led the trip.
"We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real situation," he said.
But parents of the sixth-grade students were outraged.
"The children were in that room in the dark, begging for their lives, because they thought there was someone with a gun after them," said Brandy Cole, whose son went on the trip.
Some parents said they were upset by the staff's poor judgment in light of the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech that left 33 students and professors dead, including the gunman.
During the last night of the trip, staff members convinced the 69 students that there was a gunman on the loose. They were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and stay quiet. A teacher, disguised in a hooded sweat shirt, even pulled on locked door.
After the lights went out, about 20 kids started to cry, 11-year-old Shay Naylor said.
"I was like, 'Oh My God,' " she said. "At first I thought I was going to die. We flipped out."
Principal Catherine Stephens declined to say whether the staff members involved would face disciplinary action, but said the situation "involved poor judgment."
The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List
From Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue 1
1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?
2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.
3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.
4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.
5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.
6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.
7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.
8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.
9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.
10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.
11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.
12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.
13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.
14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.
15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it.. So go be shallow somewhere else.
16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.
17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.
18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.
19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.
20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.
21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.
22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.
23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.
24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.
25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!
http://www.secular-homeschooling.com/001/bitter_homeschooler.html
Shannon Primer who lives in Oceanside but is in Carlsbad Unified School District
Schools await word on mumps vaccine for students
Ministry of Healthy Living taking a wait-and-see approach to Fraser Valley outbreak
CATHRYN ATKINSON AND ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080828.BCMUMPS28/TPStory/National
August 28, 2008
SQUAMISH AND VANCOUVER -- B.C. Education Minister Shirley Bond says her staff will be ready if called upon to arrange for mumps vaccinations in schools after they reopen next week.
In an interview yesterday, Ms. Bond had concerns that returning children could be hit by the mumps outbreak in the Fraser Valley that has left at least 190 people infected since it started in February.
Experts from the newly created Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport will decide whether to initiate school-based vaccinations if the outbreak grows into an epidemic, she said.
"It's not a decision I would make, Health would, and we are waiting to hear from the experts in the ministry who are looking at what the next steps might be. If needed we are prepared to make it happen as effectively as possible."
Ms. Bond said that, for the moment, the Fraser Health Authority is offering vaccinations to families that want them. The agency confirmed Tuesday that the outbreak started in a Chilliwack community that does not vaccinate its children on religious grounds.
"Parents need to be aware of the circumstances and be listening for information," Ms. Bond said. "A strategy is being put together and we will be ready at the school level to respond. My goal at the moment is to be sure of accommodating any request or expectation."
Her counterpart at Healthy Living and Sport, Mary Polak, said the ministry is taking a wait-and-see approach about whether to offer vaccinations at schools. "At this stage, we won't be providing immunization clinics but through the Provincial Health Officer we will be monitoring any potential cases that we see in schools and providing those immunization opportunities should the need arise."
Asked whether the ministry will consider mandatory vaccinations if the outbreak becomes an epidemic, Ms. Polak said officials have to be mindful of human rights.
"I believe that parents always want what is best for their kids, though they make different decisions around immunizations," she said, adding that the ministry is looking at a system Ontario uses to track who is vaccinated and who is not.
Julianne Doctor of the Vancouver School Board District Parent Advisory Council is worried the outbreak will spread to Vancouver.
She said in an interview that although she respects people's choice not to immunize their children, she wants to see infected youngsters quarantined to protect other children.
"If there's an outbreak and your kid's not immunized, keep them home - don't just continue to spread the [virus] around. Ideally, this should be a quarantine issue."
Although her daughter, who is going into Grade 10, has had her shots, Ms. Doctor said she would like to see mumps vaccines offered in schools in the face of the outbreak.
"They do it for hepatitis and the boosters, you know, polio and whatnot. They do it at school, so why not mumps?"
The outbreak has spread to Burnaby from Chilliwack. It stemmed from a single case in a Chilliwack religious community that rejected vaccinations.
Mumps is usually rare but highly infectious. Most of those infected will have either cold-like symptoms or none at all, while a third have swelling and inflammation in their salivary glands or other tissues. Deafness, sterility or death can occur, although rarely.
Chilliwack School District Parent Advisory Council president Kirsten Brandreth said she has no hesitation about sending her two children to school because they were vaccinated in the spring, early in the outbreak.
"The district was very good and active a few months ago about immunization. So I was happy about that," she said. "I haven't had any concerns addressed to me. ... For Chilliwack, it's been in the paper for quite a few months."
Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall said he is not seeing the illness spreading in those who have been immunized.
"That being the case, we would be offering clinics on a routine basis. But I think what we'll be doing, particularly in Vancouver, is looking for cases and if we start to see cases, we'll start taking more proactive measures."
Dr. Kendall asked those infected to stay home until they have recovered.
AUGUSTA (NEWS CENTER) -- The head of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Maine's Education Commissioner briefed reporters Friday morning on what their agencies will be doing this fall to protect the state's children against the H1N1 virus, also known as the "Swine Flu."
Maine CDC Director Dr. Dora Anne Mills and Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Brenda Harvey told reporters Friday morning that the transmission rate for the H1N1 virus will increase significantly this fall and if this past summer is any indication, most of those cases will be in people under the age of 25.
Dr. Mills says a strong indicator lies in the fact that 36 summer camps for kids were hit with swine flu in the past six weeks.
Dr. Mills, DHHS Commission Harvey and Education Commissioner Susan Gendron say students will be given permission slips on the first day of school to bring home to their parents, giving them the option to get a regular flu shot in September and a swine flu vaccine when it becomes available in mid-October.
Meanwhile, DHHS will be holding a "swine flu summit" on August 20 at the Augusta Civic Center, where health and education officials will try to come up with a game plan on how to handle H1N1 this fall.
NEWS CENTER
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hbs-FO8lE3ZraaOV7CtTQuSuaVigD98RUDC00
WASHINGTON (AP) - Schoolchildren could be first in line for swine flu vaccine this fall - and schools are being put on notice that they might even be turned into shot clinics.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday she is urging school superintendents around the country to spend the summer preparing for that possibility, if the government goes ahead with mass vaccinations.
"If you think about vaccinating kids, schools are the logical place," Sebelius told The Associated Press.
No decision has been made yet on whether and how to vaccinate millions of Americans against the new flu strain that the World Health Organization last week formally dubbed a pandemic, meaning it now is circulating the globe unchecked. But the U.S. is pouring money into development of a vaccine in anticipation of giving at least some people the shots.
While swine flu doesn't yet seem any more lethal than the regular flu that each winter kills 36,000 people in the U.S. alone, scientists fear it may morph into a more dangerous type. Even in its current form, the WHO says about half of the more than 160 people worldwide killed by swine flu so far were previously young and healthy.
If that trend continues, "the target may be school-age children as a first priority" for vaccination, Sebelius said Tuesday. "That's being watched carefully."
Schools do occasionally team up with local health officials for special flu vaccination clinics but it's not common. More than 140 schools around the country scheduled flu vaccination days last fall, some providing free vaccine. Some vaccinated only students bearing parent consent forms; others opened their doors to entire families.
In a wide-ranging interview, Sebelius said it could take several years to meet President Barack Obama's top healthcare priority - covering the uninsured - even if Congress manages to pass legislation this fall.
"Will something probably be phased in? You bet," Sebelius told The AP. It could take until 2011 or 2012 to set up new programs, time that would help spread out a cost that by some estimates would be $1 trillion over 10 years.
Among the aims of the administration's planned overhaul is to help eliminate health disparities between minority groups and whites, "which frankly is unconscionable," Sebelius said.
Hispanics and blacks are more likely to lack health insurance, and also have higher rates of a host of illnesses. But Sebelius said some of the most severe disparities are found with American Indians, and pledged a multiyear effort to reverse "a historic failure of the government." The U.S. is obligated to provide free health care on reservations, but the troubled Indian Health Service has only about half the money it needs.
More immediately, Sebelius faces the looming question of whether to push forward with swine flu vaccinations this fall, on top of the regular winter flu vaccine that will be distributed as usual. A key challenge would be making people understand who needs which, or both, vaccines, decisions that will be made in part based on how swine flu behaves in the Southern Hemisphere this summer, where flu season is just beginning.
Sebelius soon will call together the nation's governors to be sure "these months between now and the fall aren't used as vacation months" but in getting ready.
"We can always sort of back off" if the new flu fades away, she said, "but we can't wait til October hits and say, 'Oh my heavens, what are we going to do?'"
Companies are on track to provide pilot doses for testing later this summer, Sebelius said. Those government-led studies will check if the vaccine seems to work, if one dose or two will be needed, and most important if it's safe. The last mass vaccination against a different swine flu, in the U.S. in 1976, was marred by reports of a paralyzing side effect - for a feared outbreak that never happened.
So the Food and Drug Administration will closely track vaccine safety, Sebelius said.
The secretary said: "The worst of all worlds is to have the vaccine cause more damage than the flu potential."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
I do not like the idea of schools interfering in the health of students. What is next vaccines after class? If schools are so concerned with the health of their students, how about making organic nutritious lunches instead of fast food and coke machines. Schools are for getting an education not for inflicting "healthcare".
June 4, 2004
THE NATION
Arkansas Schoolchildren Getting Weight Report Cards
By Rosie Mestel, Times Staff Writer
In an unusual move to address increasing obesity in children, Arkansas has begun mailing health reports to families of all its 450,000 public school children, informing parents of their children's weights and offering lifestyle tips. The state is the first in the country to require such annual reports. Its survey represents the largest body-weight assessment of American children and adolescents.
The first year's measurements, conducted for the 2003-04 school year, suggest that American children might be heavier than health experts believed, according to a report released Thursday at an obesity conference in Virginia convened by Time magazine and ABC News.
The Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, which is responsible for analyzing the weight data, found that 40% of Arkansas' children are either overweight or at risk of becoming so — 10% more than the federal government had estimated for 2001 for this region.
"I think the alarm bell should be sounded that this epidemic may be advancing much more quickly than previously predicted," said Dr. Joe Thompson, a University of Arkansas pediatrician and director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement.
The schools measured the children's height and weight in private with their faces away from the scales, then calculated the students' body mass index, or BMI. BMI is a person's weight in pounds multiplied by 703, divided by the square of their height in inches.
So far, researchers have analyzed BMI measurements on 276,783 students, more than half of Arkansas' public school students. Nearly 90% of the schools have reported their data and several thousand letters have been sent. The remainder of the 450,000 letters will be mailed during June and July. The survey found that 22% of children were overweight, 18% were at risk of becoming overweight, 58% fell in the normal range and 2% were underweight.
Letters for children in the overweight or at-risk categories encourage parents to meet with a pediatrician, suggest healthier snacks such as fruits and vegetables, limiting sodas, restricting television and computer time, and increasing family exercise time. But some experts worried that more detailed advice than this was needed if the letters were to be of use.
"It's just a bit general for my tastes," said Pat Crawford, co-director of the Center for Weight and Health at UC Berkeley. "I think parents need very explicit information on what to do and what not to do." Crawford said she worried that some parents could hurt the situation by putting their children on stringent diets or seeking out dietary supplements. The individualized health report is one of several anti-obesity moves that the Arkansas Legislature mandated in 2003.
The state has also banned vending machines from elementary schools, required reports on competitive food and beverage sales in schools, set up school nutrition and exercise committees and established a child health advisory committee. Experts hope that in future years Arkansas could become a scientific testing ground for measures to prevent obesity in children. Among the items that should be tested is whether annual BMI report cards could foster a preoccupation with food and a greater risk of eating disorders, they said. "I want to applaud Arkansas," said Dr. Carden Johnston, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a news conference. The academy recommends that doctors determine a child's BMI each year.
It is next....
2007-09-24 16:55:53
http://www.cna.com.tw/eng/cepread.php?id=200709240013
Taipei, Sept. 24 (CNA) The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Monday urged parents of first- and second-grade elementary students around Taiwan to sign an agreement allowing their children to undergo free influenza inoculations in schools.
CDC Deputy Director-General Chou Chih-hau said the 2007 free flu vaccination program is scheduled to begin Oct. 1 nationwide, and will last until Nov. 31. The program is part of efforts to prevent major outbreaks of the highly contagious disease, which usually strikes from October to March every year.
This year, Chou noted, the inoculation program will target senior citizens aged over 65, residents and health care personnel of nursing homes, patients suffering from rare disorders, children aged between six months and two years, quarantine personnel at medical and health institutions, as well as employees of livestock farms.
Notably, the 2007 program will also target more than half million of first and second graders around Taiwan, Chou added, indicating that since the vaccination is not obligatory, parents are requested to indicate their agreement before the time comes for their youngsters to receive the injection in schools.
Chou explained that having students vaccinated is expected to block transmission of the influenza virus to the elderly and infants, both of whom have weaker immune responses to disease. He urged the parents to participate in the collective vaccination program, which is an important part of the CDC's efforts to curb the prevalence of the influenza virus in the nation.
According to the Department of Health (DOH) , the government has purchased vaccines against three different flu strains, including the Solomon Islands strain of H1N1, the Wisconsin strain of H3N2, and the strain B/Malaysia, for the use this year.
Influenza is a virus-caused acute respiratory disease, the initial symptoms of which include fever, headache, muscle ache, fatigue, running nose, throat ache and coughing. Complications such as pneumonia, middle ear infection, encephalitis, Reye's syndrome and other sever infections, can develop, and in some cases, threaten the life of a patient.
In accordance with the national vaccination program, the Taipei Veterans General Hospital (TVGH) will open a "single window" service counter Oct. 1-12, at which it will offer free flu inoculation to the aged, including those born before 1942 and holding the Republic of China nationality, as well as aged foreigners holding residence permits and national health insurance cards, and the patients suffering from rare disorders, hospital executives said.
The "window" will be set up in the lobby of the TVGH's Chungcheng building to offer the inoculation service at 8:30 a.m.-noon, and 1:30 p.m.-5: 00 p.m. from Monday to Friday, as well as 8: 30 a.m.-noon on Saturday, according to the hospital.
(By Elizabeth Hsu)
www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bal-ed.immune14sep14,0,6872462.story
baltimoresun.comReel in vaccine resistersSeptember 14, 2007
As another deadline looms next week for students to show proof of immunization or be kept out of class, Baltimore school principals and staff should be making every effort to ensure that parents and students comply with the vaccine requirements. And parents need to stop being a roadblock to their children's education.
Required immunizations against chickenpox and hepatitis B reflect growing concerns that these diseases can have serious consequences for children well beyond kindergarten. However, no one gains if students are kept out of school for long periods of time.
In Baltimore, where more than 16,000 students had not been immunized by this time last year, officials say fewer than 2,500 this year still need their shots. That's good news in its way, but it's still a sizable number despite many letters, personal and automated calls and up to 300 home visits made so far.
School administrators have done a better job of tracking stragglers this year and plan to send each one home today with a personalized note detailing what shots are needed and where they can be obtained. How outrageous that they must spend their time prodding parents to be responsible.
But though health department workers have given thousands of shots and housing department workers have made dozens of home visits, school officials are in the best position to follow up with students and their families. Special efforts must be made to find an estimated 250 students who need shots but have not yet shown up for school. They may have left the city school system or they may be chronic truants, but their status needs to be determined and they need to be pulled back into a school.
Principals and teachers must also keep careful watch over about 1,400 of the stragglers who are in neighborhood and citywide high schools. They are being sent home today with parental consent forms so that they can come back next week and be given their shots by the school nurse assigned to each high school. Extra nagging by school administrators is justified because ninth-and 10th-graders kept out of school for lack of compliance could become dropouts.
For the sake of overall public health and safety, officials must aggressively pursue vaccine resisters and no-shows. Students need to be immunized - and in class.
Another good reason to homeschool
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=1162650
Recruiting drive for nurses to give shots
16.07.2004
By AINSLEY THOMSON
A recruiting drive is under way to hire nurses and support staff needed to give the meningococcal vaccination to 150,000 children. On Monday the programme starts in south and east Auckland and more than 100 registered nurses are needed to give schoolchildren their three injections. Additional nurses are also needed to help GPs to administer the vaccine to children under 5 or teenagers who have left school, and support and administrative staff are being hired. All this has meant a major recruiting drive for the Counties Manukau District Health Board.
South and east Auckland are the first places the vaccine is being given because they have the highest rates of the disease, which, since 1991, has killed 220 New Zealanders - 80 per cent of them children - and maimed hundreds more. Kidz First public health co-ordinator Natalie Dawson said there were 36 public health nurses already employed and so far 52 nurses had been recruited. A further 15 nurses were needed.
There had been a lot of applications. "We were just amazed. I think people saw this as something really positive they could do." The nurses were employed on fixed-term contracts until the end of the year, but it was likely many would transfer to other district health boards when they began their vaccination programmes. Nurses would undergo a week's orientation and would need a vaccination certificate. Sue Miller, meningococcal programme manager at the health board, said work was being done to find out how many nurses would be needed to help GPs.
"What we are trying to do is help GPs with the recruitment process, sourcing of the nurses, interviewing and helping with their administrative tasks." While the campaign started on Monday, the actual vaccinations would not be given in schools until August 2, she said. She was confident all the necessary nurses would have been hired by then. About 20 support and administrative staff would also be hired to help the nurses with the lengthy vaccination process.
"There are a number of activities from the time children come from the classroom until they get the vaccination. We try to create a friendly, low-stress, low-intensity environment. The children are met, then their consent forms are pulled out. "Then a nurse does what we call a triage process, so if a child is unwell or fearful or there is conflicting information on the consent form, we don't automatically vaccinate. There is quite a process."
THE M WORD: The numbers
All relate to stage one of the programme, in south and east Auckland.
104 nurses giving the vaccination.
450,000 vials of the vaccine will be given.
100,000 consent forms are being sent out to parents. (50,000 without consent forms?)
150,000 people will be vaccinated.
228 schools will be involved.
85,540 translated inserts for the consent forms in various languages.
4500 envelopes to hold returned consent forms.
32,000 6-page foldout information leaflets.
42,500 translated versions of the info leaflets.
150 flip charts to use in educating people.
1600 teacher packs to use in educating children.
6000 16-page information booklets.
330,000 post-vaccination forms.
256,630 translated versions of the post-vaccination forms.
1360 posters.
150 operating manuals for nurses.
01/27/05 Immunizations in School
http://www.ktre.com/Global/story.asp?S=2868322&nav=2FH5VhMB
by Jessica Cervantez
Kids can now go to the school nurse for more than just colds and sicknesses, they can now get their immunization shots at school.Brenda Whitman, the elementary school nurse supervisor, said, "We ran into a problem this year that we hadn't had before, some of our community resources lost their grants in order for them to come to school to give shots. So, we were having to send our children to Lufkin and even to Mt. Enterprise for them to get shots and get to school the same day that they registered."
The program is called "Texas Vaccines for Children." Whitman said, "Monday we had five children registering for school and we gave each child at least four or five shots a piece for them to attend their first day." If the students miss school, not only do they miss out, but so does the school. Whitman said, "We are paid by our daily enrollment and we don't want any child to miss one day of school if they don't have to miss." Lack of immunization records often cause many Hispanic students to miss school. That's why HACER, Hispanic Alliance for Community Enrichment, found it important to donate two refrigerators to the district.
Ruben Rodriguez, the HACER president, said, "If the school needs refrigerators then I think we can help that." The only schools that need refrigerators now include Raguet and Nettie Marshall Elementary, McMichael Middle school and the charter school. If you would like to donate a refrigerator to one of those four remaining Nacogdoches schools in need just contact one of the school nurses.
School offers HPV vaccine
November 24, 2007
By Sarah Hinckley Herald Staff
Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester has begun to offer an HPV vaccination to its student body through the school's health clinic. The human papilloma virus is contracted by 50 percent of people who are sexually active; 20 million people are infected and another 6 million will contract it by the year end, according to the Center for Disease Control. The HPV vaccination protects against four strains of HPV that are known to cause cervical cancer. "The HPV is something we feel really strongly about," said Meg Burns, a registered nurse and director of the school health clinic. "We knew it would be kind of edgy … The positive support has been unbelievable. We haven't had anybody come in and say they've disagreed."
According to the Center of Disease Control, there are 10 strains that can cause cervical cancer. There are 100 different strains of HPV, 30 of which are transmitted sexually. Females can be tested for the virus through a pap smear. There is no test for males. Within the first two years of contracting the disease, 90 percent of women test negative for cervical HPV. The academy was approached by the Vermont Immunization Department to offer the vaccination to its female students. A refrigerator was purchased, temperature control was tested for two weeks and a physician had to sign on before the shot could be administered. "It took some time because we needed to get permission from the state," Burns said.
This month was the first in which the vaccine was dispensed and interest in the vaccination has been strong. Parental permission is required for students to use the health clinic and additional consent must be given for reception of the immunization. "The first two dates filled up pretty quickly," Burns said. "We're full and some students have waited a couple of weeks." Immunizations are offered at the school health clinic the first Tuesday and Wednesday of each month. They are done in three doses, which are administered over six months. In the school program the shot is combined with a tetanus vaccination. As many as 10 new students can receive the shot each day it is offered, which leaves room for the necessary successive shots.
"We immediately book the student for their shot number two," said Burns, who also sends a reminder email. "If they forget we track them down." Ample notice was sent out to parents and students before the first dates the immunization was offered, through a blast e-mail and the school newspaper. "We wanted to make sure the parents and students had enough information," said Burns, who has been at the school for 12 years. There are 710 students at Burr and Burton Academy. When there was a nurse practitioner employed at the school, full services, such as gynecological exams, blood work and testing for STDs, were offered. Besides Burns, a Licensed Practical Nurse is also employed at the clinic, which provides education, counseling and support services to the students.
"We provide a lot of education (and) counsel kids on being sexually active and depression," said Burns. "We definitely see more girls in here. More girls access nursing services and healthcare, period."
Contact Sarah Hinckley at sarah.hinckley@rutlandherald.com.
"Ow," says Denae Woods, 15, a sophomore at Westwood High School in Mesa as Firefighter Steve Ward gives her a tetanus shot during a mock bioterror drill held Thursday as a practice session for emergency crews.
By Jonathan Sidener
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 22, 2002
Officers with assault rifles and paramedics armed with hypodermic needles invaded Mesa's Westwood High School on Thursday. The men and women in uniform were part of a daylong drill at the school to see how ready health, emergency and military systems are to deal with a bioterror attack.
But the mock attack also helped provide a day of distraction for Westwood students. Some got breaks from class to participate in the drills. Others stared at the onslaught of TV satellite trucks and emergency vehicles surrounding the gym. Several football players on the way to practice were particularly enthralled with the officers' combat weapons. The bioterrorism training began at 9 a.m. as paramedics and public health nurses began dishing out tetanus shots to students. Slightly more than 3,000 students from Mesa's six high schools, including 500 at Westwood, received the free shots.
Students knew they were getting shots they needed by January, but unless they read about it in the newspaper, they didn't know they were contributing to national emergency planning.
"They just told us we needed tetanus shots," student Tracy Theriot said.
While emergency officials routinely conduct mock drills, the opportunity to immunize thousands of students added realism this time around, said Mary Cameli, deputy chief of the Mesa Fire Department.
"We've done many of these on the tabletop, but the chance to do it hands-on is the best," Cameli said. "We had some kids faint and some signs of anxiety, things we wouldn't have seen if we weren't giving real shots." In the drill immunizing students, emergency workers discovered bottlenecks when the paperwork went faster than the needlework, Cameli said. On the one hand, giving shots to 3,000 students in two hours is an accomplishment, she said. But it's still a small sample of the number of people who might need inoculation in a real emergency.
Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta sent a shipment of mock antibiotics to Tucson from one of 12 secret locations that make up the National Pharmaceutical Stockpile. Thursday morning, emergency workers in Tucson unpacked and sorted the labeled, but empty, pill bottles. Some bottles remained in Tucson for a drill there today. A team of Department of Public Safety officers escorted the supplies to Mesa. Wearing flak jackets, combat boots and helmets, they guarded the cargo until it was carried into the gym.
Inside, 200 adult volunteers waited for antibiotics to treat their fake anthrax.
Volunteer "victims" went through a medical screening process and waited to meet with one of the pharmacists, who dispensed the fake antibiotics from Tucson.
Mostly, they waited.
Christine Mahon, of the Maricopa County Public Health Department, said the afternoon drills had also turned up some bottlenecks. Officials will look for ways to smooth out those areas in case of a large-scale crisis. We're testing our process," Mahon said. "If we can do well with hundreds of people, then we could do well with thousands."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2988754a11,00.html
Parents angry at vaccine pressure
01 August 2004
By EMILY WATT
Angry parents say their children are being terrified and bribed into having the meningococcal vaccine with what one father described as "sneaky and nasty" tactics. Some schools are giving children chocolate and morning tea as a reward for returning consent forms. One mother said her eight-year-old burst into tears saying "I don't want my limbs to fall off" when told he could not have the vaccine. The boy told his mother two teachers had come to his Clayton Park School classroom in Manurewa, south Auckland and warned him of the threats of the disease. "They're using scare tactics on the children," the parent told the Sunday Star-Times. Clayton Park School principal Bernard Barradell denied teachers told children they would lose their limbs and said children were probably scaring each other. "I'd be flabbergasted if one of my staff said that," he said.
But the parent said her child had been very clear the warning came from the teachers. She said such tactics frightened children and manipulated parents. "He's making me feel terrible that I'm not letting him have this 'life saving' thing." Immunisation Awareness Society researcher Sue Claridge said the organisation had received a number of complaints from parents concerned their children were being manipulated by schools into having the vaccine.
One parent said her five-year-old was shown photos of a baby with amputated arms on her first day of school and came home afraid she was going to die. Claridge pointed out there were also graphic images on the consent forms of children scarred with the disease and those would frighten children. Carol Mallard, a school principal who helped develop the schools' training programme and information pack, said the resources were designed to inform children about the disease and it was up to schools to use them appropriately.
"We were mindful of the fact that the Meningococcal B can have devastating effects but we didn't want to frighten the children," she said. Claridge said showing graphic images to young children was unprofessional and unethical as it did not help early diagnosis and children did not need to be persuaded as they were not required to consent. Other parents reported they were being pressured into deciding whether to have their child vaccinated. One father complained to the Sunday Star-Times his daughter's school was offering children chocolate to return their vaccine consent forms the next day. When he did not return the form the next day, he said the school telephoned him and asked him to bring it in.
The school also promised a free morning tea to the first class to return all their forms and his daughter felt she was letting the class down when he was unwilling to sign the form immediately. But the principal of Waiuku's View Bay School Trevor Guthrie said the school had put pressure on to get the consent forms returned but they had not encouraged children or parents to consent to the vaccine. He said he had "no issues" with parents taking more time to consider the vaccination but the school was trying to target those who might not otherwise bother to return the form. Kidz First public health nurse Elizabeth Farrell praised schools in getting the consent forms returned quickly. There was some pressure to begin vaccinations so the rest of the country's vaccines would not be delayed, she said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1651-2004Oct1.html
The Washington Post
District Resorts to Court To Enforce Inoculations
434 Students' Parents May Face Neglect Charges
By Sewell Chan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 2, 2004; Page B04
Education officials in the District announced yesterday that they would begin referring the cases of 434 students who lack proof of immunization to the city's Family Court, where the children's parents and guardians could be fined or jailed and ultimately charged with child neglect. All of the children have been barred from attending classes, which began Sept. 1.
Officials said the referrals to the judicial system are a drastic but unavoidable option because numerous outreach efforts have failed to compel parents and guardians to obtain or document the required shots. A 1979 city law prohibits students from attending school without current immunization records. A major push to enforce the law began in 2002.
Of the 434 children, 379 are in middle, junior high or senior high schools. Although many of them had been immunized in previous years, their records are missing or they have not received catch-up shots or booster doses against such diseases as tetanus, diphtheria, chickenpox and hepatitis B, officials said.
Ralph H. Neal, the assistant superintendent who oversees enforcement of the immunization rules, said that numerous notices have been mailed since the spring to remind parents of the requirements. City workers have knocked on doors and placed telephone calls to get families to respond.
"Principals have made phone calls and even taken kids to the clinics themselves," Neal said. "It is definitely the parents' responsibility to make sure that the students are in compliance with the immunization law. The court system will have to fulfill its responsibility with respect to charging families with truancy or neglect."
Under a 1990 law, parents who fail to make sure that their children attend school can be fined as much as $100 and jailed for as many as five days for each offense. The Family Court, a division of D.C. Superior Court, has assigned a judge to focus on truancy cases.
The District appears to have an especially severe problem with immunizations. In Loudoun County, for example, very few students showed up to school on the first day without immunizations, and those who did received their shots within days, said Wayde B. Byard, a spokesman for the school system. In Fairfax County, letters and phone calls are nearly always sufficient to get parents to comply quickly, said Diana F. Jarrett, coordinator of student registration services for the county school system.
Lost records and missing immunizations are common in low-income urban school districts, where many families lack consistent access to preventive health care, said Deborah L. Wexler, an advocate for childhood immunizations.
"People move frequently, from place to place and clinic to clinic, and there's the issue of lost or unretrievable records," said Wexler, a family physician who heads the Immunization Action Coalition, based in St. Paul, Minn., which tries to increase vaccination rates. "Kids fall behind in their vaccinations. They slip through the cracks. A lot of families live from day to day, and immunization just isn't a top priority when there are other crises going on."
Most immunizations occur in infancy or early childhood. However, children are supposed to receive a tetanus-diphtheria booster dose about age 11, and children who have not received a second dose of immunization against mumps, measles and rubella before kindergarten generally receive it when they enter middle school. The hepatitis B vaccine was not recommended until 1991, and vaccinations against chickenpox began in 1995, so older children might lack those immunizations.
Karyn L. Berry, interim deputy director for primary care and prevention at the D.C. Department of Health, said that lost records have become less of a problem since the department began a computerized immunization registry. The health department is urging parents to first contact their primary-care physicians to arrange for immunizations, but has arranged for six clinics to provide free shots for families lacking other options. For information about the clinic locations, call 800-MOM-BABY (800-666-2229).
Staff writers Maria Glod and Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1004/183802.html
D.C. Parents In Court On Lack of Vaccinations
Friday October 29, 2004 10:11am
Lack of Vaccines Put Parents In Court
Washington (AP) - Some D.C. parents who were called on the carpet because their children weren't immunized in time for school are blaming mix-ups.
Susie Simms says she had her child immunized on time and she's angry about having to appear in court Friday.
Patricia Williams says her son got his shots on October 14th, the same day he enrolled in Spingarn High School. The D.C. attorney general's office was given the names of parents who didn't immunize by October 15th, and an assistant AG says she will pursue cases of those immunized after the 15th . Forty-one parents have been charged but only 38 were due in court Friday because the others weren't notified in time. Parents are due back in court on December seventh.
Parents face one count for every two days of school their children miss. The penalty for each count is five days in jail and/or a $100.00. Some parents are facing as many as 14 counts over how long
their child has missed school.
washingtonpost.com <http://www.washingtonpost.com/>
Correction to This Article
An Oct. 30 Metro article on District parents and guardians who had to appear in court because they failed to prove their children had been immunized quoted a mother as saying she did not know her daughter needed a tuberculosis shot. For tuberculosis, D.C. public schools require not a shot but a skin test for exposure to the disease. Parents of D.C. Students Without Shots Sent to Court
By Manny Fernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 30, 2004; Page B01
District parents and guardians who failed to prove that their children had been properly immunized this school year got more than a summons to the principal's office: They were ordered to appear in court. D.C. public school officials referred the names of all parents who they alleged had failed to obtain or document the required shots by Oct. 15 to the District's Office of the Attorney General. Prosecutors filed criminal charges against 41 parents and guardians, leading to hearings yesterday in D.C. Superior Court.
Throughout the morning and afternoon inside Judge Robert E. Morin's courtroom, the adults stood nervously before the bench alongside their court-appointed attorneys and entered pleas of guilty or not guilty. "This is something new to me," said Tina Smith, 32, who added that she did not know that her daughter, a freshman at Anacostia Senior High School, needed a tuberculosis shot. "I just wish it'd be over with."
The charges were part of a recent push by schools, courts and health officials to compel parents and guardians to get their children immunized and to cut down on truancy. Students who have not received their shots or booster doses against tetanus, chickenpox, hepatitis B and other diseases
are prohibited from attending school. The 41 parents and guardians were charged with violations of the Compulsory School Attendance Act.
Under the 1990 law, parents who fail to make sure that their children attend school regularly can be fined as much as $100 and jailed for up to five days for each offense. After their hearings, some parents took their children to a third-floor conference room inside the Superior Court building, where the Department of Health set up an immunization station. About 10 students received shots there, officials said.
Several parents complained that they had, in fact, gotten their children properly immunized, and they blamed the school system for losing or mishandling the records. "I know there are neglectful parents, but I'm not one of them," said Daniel Logan, 41, who said his 15-year-old son, a student at Coolidge Senior High School, was immunized. Michael Taylor and his wife, Matilda, said their 18-year-old son, a senior at Coolidge, also had obtained the necessary shots. They said the school mishandled the records. "They should have had their records up-to-date," Matilda Taylor said.
Ralph Neal, assistant superintendent for student and school support services, said that school officials "stand behind the fact that parents had not come forward to present their information to the school so that the school nurse could clear them." Some parents said they were rattled by the experience of appearing before a judge under the threat of fines and jail time. After their names and cases were called, the parents and guardians stood next to their attorneys and listened quietly while a clerk told them: "You have the right to remain silent, and you have the right to an attorney."
"It was humiliating," Susaron Simms said after her hearing. Simms said she received a notice to come to court after she had gotten her 16-year-old son, a sophomore at Spingarn Senior High, immunized. "It's really not fair to all the parents, because all parents are not alike," she said. Of the 41 parents and guardians ordered to appear in Family Court, 34 showed.
Assistant Attorney General Rachele Gaines said authorities would obtain warrants to arrest those who failed to appear. By the end of the day, about three bench warrants were issued against missing parents or guardians; the others had their hearings rescheduled.
"This is not about being vindictive," Gaines said. "The onus is on the parent to take responsibility and do what they need to do in order to make sure their child is enrolled and attending school." Last school year, city prosecutors filed 98 cases against parents for a range of violations under the school attendance law. The office offers eligible parents enrollment in a deferred sentencing program to avoid jail time. Of last school year's 98 cases, two parents were sentenced to three days in jail after failing the program.
http://www.drugawareness.org/Archives/Survivors/record0081.html
7/13/2003
Horror story of forced drugging
Ritalin/Adderall
"It seemed that the more medicine they used, the worse he got."
If a stranger on the street came up to me and my child with a package of cocaine and offered to give my child a free month’s supply, I’d have him arrested.
AFTER I beat the living mess out of him. How DARE someone I don’t know offer dangerous, mind altering drugs to my child with me standing right there? Yet I sat there in that school psychologist’s office when my son was a mere five years old listening to this woman I’d never met before tell me my son had Attention Deficit Disorder and needed to be put on Ritalin so that he could concentrate more in class, stop fidgeting and disrupting. I sat forward in my seat, a confused look on my face. Fidgeting? Disrupting? Lack of concentration? I voiced my concern to the psychologist that there
was a health problem with my son, that two years earlier he and our family had suffered through a severe toxic poisoning of carbon monoxide for almost three months that left everyone dazed for some time afterwards. Perhaps, I told her, he was simply having after effects of the poisoning and wasn’t quite himself yet. I’d already heard from a neurologist that toxic poisoning can cause possible brain damage, concentration difficulties and irritability. Could that not be a possibility? Definitely not, she stated. She had observed Daniel in class many times and he had all the classic signs of ADHD, and was certain it was Daniel’s difficulty. She said that she had spoken with the teacher and the teacher agreed with her. No, she said, Daniel needed to be put on Ritalin to control his outbursts and concentration problems.
She gave me a form she had filled out showing a long list of symptoms, each with a nasty little checkmark beside it that she had filled out and signed while observing Daniel, and I was to give it to the pediatrician when asking for my son to be put on the medication.
Still skeptical, I didn’t make an appointment for my son right away. I saw no signs of ADHD at home. Yes, he had a temper, but what child doesn’t? Yes, he fought with his brother and sisters. But what child doesn’t? He could sit and watch an entire thirty minutes of cartoons on Sunday, he could sit and look at a comic book about Spiderman for over twenty minutes and not make a peep.
My son? ADHD?? Not in this lifetime, I remember thinking.
Two weeks later, the school psychologist called me at home asking me if I’d had a chance to get to the pediatrician. I told her I was still thinking about my options.
To this day, I can remember the chill down the back of my neck when the next words out of her mouth were a stern “Now, Mrs. Rosecrans, refusing to cooperate with the school system is not benefiting you or your son. We may have to move him to a Special Education class if you’re not willing to put his education first, and in some states that’s considered child abuse.” I gripped the phone hard. The mere words “child abuse” brought on visuals of social service workers poking through my house, asking me millions of questions about how I fed the children, how I disciplined the children, forcing me and my husband to take parenting classes, and the possibility that they could even yank my child out of my home. I’d seen it happen to others. I’d heard the horror stories at Head Start a year earlier from other parents who dared go against the school. I was TERRIFIED. Just the mere thought of my little boy’s face laying on a bed in some foster home crying because Mommy wasn’t there filled my eyes with tears instantly. I choked out quietly that I would speak to the pediatrician as soon as possible. Satisfied, the psychologist let me go. I sent a letter to the school the very next morning confirming that I would do as I was asked and take Daniel to the pediatrician for a checkup and possible medication. Once again, though, a few days later, the horrors of pumping my child with medications without a full research into other possibilities scared me worse.
So I began my own research into brain injury due to toxic poisonings, near drownings and asphyxiation. Sure enough, my son had symptoms related to brain injury, and we already suspected his father had possible brain injury as well.
Not even two weeks after the call, I got a letter from my son’s teacher, stating that she had received my note about taking my son to the doctor and seeking advice on medications, and that she had not heard anything about it yet and needed to know more. I felt pushed again. I called my son’s teacher, who told me that since the school psychologist who was trained to recognize ADHD stated Daniel was definitely an ADHD child, he simply had to be placed on medication that would CERTAINLY help him and help his grades or be placed in a special education class.
Again, I felt severely pressured, the undertones being “OR WE”RE GOING TO REPORT YOU”. So I made an appointment with my son’s pediatrician. Without so much as five minutes alone with my son, she handed me a prescription for Ritalin, smiled, and told me to contact her in two weeks to give an update on his progress. Then she simply left the room.
Fearing reprisal by Child Protective, and after an assurance from my son’s pediatrician that Ritalin was prescribed daily for thousands of children all over the United States, I reluctantly asked my baby to put medication in his mouth and tiny body that was made from a derivative of cocaine. No information from the doctor about side effects, nor from the pharmacist. Just a cold piece of paper that read like scientific reports not meant for lay people to understand. Well, that and the words “Effectiveness in children under the age of 18 has not been established”.
Yeah, that one got me scared, but not as scared as having my son yanked from me. The first two weeks, my son was a zombie. Just what they wanted, a quiet, compliant child. But there was no warmth there anymore. No heart. No fire.
He didn’t even seem like my son anymore. After that, the symptoms came back, this time with a vengeance. Another drug, Adderal, was added. Then another, Clonadine. Then the Ritalin was discontinued, and Wellbutrin added. Adderal removed, Zyprexa added.
It seemed that the more medicine they used, the worse he got. OH he’d be fine for a few weeks. But then it was like uncaging a monster. He started screaming. Waking up in the middle of the night hearing “voices”. Psychotic episodes began to get more frequent. He had intense rage episodes brought on by nothing, destroying furniture and trying to kill himself and others.
Finally, I removed my son from all medications. During the withdrawal, my son got worse. His father was going through the same thing, and suddenly I have a knock on my door from Social Services, stating my son has reported being belted by his father and that my son is not on medications as he is supposed to be. OH MY LORD, I thought, I’VE BEEN REPORTED FOR CHILD ABUSE!!! A check of everything from our bedrooms, our bathrooms, even to our closets and refrigerators left them satisfied that my kids were at least healthy and happy, but they were concerned about the medicine situation. I told the workers that I felt my son was being harmed by it. They said I needed counseling and that they would be back in touch. Fearing the worse, I packed up my two boys and left the state. Situations had already gotten so bad between their father and I we could no longer hold a decent conversation without either him or our son losing their temper and going into a rage. There was no more marriage. All my energy had been focused on a child who was threatening death and a husband that fed off my son’s anger with his own.
Once I got to New Mexico, and my son off the drugs, he seemed to calm some.
Even start showing signs of the sweet, funny, delightful little boy I knew I’d given birth to. After a month or so, it became obvious to me that my marriage was over. I wanted my two girls who I had left in New York with their father and grandmother to be with me. So a nasty custody battle ensued, with Child Protective, this time in New Mexico, combing every inch of my house to assure the children were safe.
Daniel again started having difficulties in school, unable to concentrate, and fidgety. Again, the same nightmare. Yet this school system was contacted by Child Protective in NY who advised them that my son should have been on medications, and again I was immediately pushed into drugging
my son.
The strain was simply too much for the little fellow and he ended up in a psychiatric hospital for a few weeks to gain control of his emotions, brought on I suspected, by the new drug they had him on. SEREQUEL, a wonder drug, I was told. Since my son was in the hospital and I was unable to attend the child custody hearing in New York, I lost custody of my precious babies. Their father, accused of child abuse by me and by Child Protective, was given custody of my children simply because I could not be there due to my son’s emergency hospitalization by a judge who never met me, never heard my side, and never gave me a chance to reschedule.
Five agonizing months later, I was given custody back of my children due to their father’s inability to control Daniel and happily took them back to New Mexico.
Once I got my son back to New Mexico, I found out another psychiatrist had agreed my son was ADHD and had put him on Tegretol and Klonopin. I immediately removed the medicine and it brought out rage episodes while my son was detoxing from its effects. By this time, my son had several “labels” by different doctors, psychiatrists and psychologists. The main one being ADHD. They added Bipolar, ODD, IDS, and even Learning Disorder, completely ignoring my pleas that the child be checking for brain injury due to the carbon monoxide poisoning. They all seemed certain that my son was indeed ADHD and no one wanted to buck the trend.
Finally worn out from fighting Child Protective and school systems in two states, I felt myself wearing down, near to collapse. I moved me and my four children across country to Atlanta, Georgia to be with my mom and get her help. I had figured that if I said NOTHING to the schools, simply put my son in the age appropriate classes and show him security, love and affection, he’d do much better. I’d also made a promise to myself to find the best neurologist in the area and get his brain checked for damage.
When the records arrived from the other state, my son was instantly labeled “ADHD” by the school system, yanked from his normal class and put in Special Education. Once again Child Protective from THIS state came out to the house to demand I let them investigate to make sure the family was safe. They demanded I follow the instructions of the school psychiatrist and put my son on Zoloft, Risperdal and Adderal to control his outbursts, lack of concentration and his ADHD. I felt so defeated. So abused by three states and their systems put in place to PROTECT families and children.
Despite everything I had to go through in the last three years, losing my home, losing my security, having to support four children on my own financially and emotionally, despite having no social life and no one to turn to, I was still considering an unfit mother and under Child Protection once again in a third state, pushing me to medicate my son. After three more emergency hospitalizations, four different medications including Depakote, Clonadine and Neurontin, trying to convince dozens of teachers, psychiatrists and psychologists that my son had possible brain injury and NOT ADHD, after losing every dime I had taking care of four children with no child support, after months of research into brain injured children, I gave up.
I knew I had to move my children back to the State of New York where my ex husband would be forced to help me take care of their financial needs, their health needs, and their emotional needs. So back to NY we went. Immediately, I was placed back on Child Protective with the local county. Almost as fast, my son again started having psychotic episodes that forced hospitalizations, one in a hospital over 80 miles away due to, I was convinced, OVERMEDICATION.
I continued my research into brain injury and made my thoughts known to the psychiatrist on staff at the hospital my son was taken to, who dismissed it as ridiculous. At that center, he was abused, forced to wipe with shower curtains, locked in time out rooms until he wet his pants, given shots of Thorazaine along with doses of Benedryl by an undertrained staff to shut him up. After my complaints went unnoticed, I complained to the Office of Mental Health, who did a surprise inspection on the site, and found all the atrocities I and other parents had complained about and immediately forced the center to stop accepting children until the difficulties were resolved.
Three weeks of living hell for my baby, who by this time had been poked, prodded, examined and stolen from his mommy and siblings over seven times. A child who now longer trusted or wanted to comply with staff. Placed on Seroquel and Neurontin, he became a zombie again.
Seeing my son on a visit that day suddenly made me ANGRY. AND I MEAN I GOT MAD. I suddenly found myself demanding my son be given more attention. Demanding I get to talk to my son more often. Demanding to see his records, to which I was denied three times by the staff. Demanding that he be given a brain scan to test for injury before upping the dosage on his medication. To this day, I still have a recording of the doctor telling me that a brain scan would never be done at that facility and I should check into another venue for that, yet refused to decrease my son’s medication for it. I was even told by the staff social worker that Daniel’s problems were EMOTIONAL, caused by parents that were divorced, a mother that drug them across country three times, and a dysfunctional family life. I sure chewed her butt out that day, let me tell you. It felt GOOD.
Then the hospital threw my son out after three weeks because I was getting PUSHY. They claim the insurance company refused to pay for any further treatment, but the insurance company denied their statements, saying their own social worker had called to cancel Daniel’s treatment.
Three weeks after I weaned my son of yet another drug cocktail, he began symptoms of withdrawal, became violent. He was taken from me again and put in a hospital over 3 hours away. My heart still breaks every time I imagine that boy’s horror in that long ambulance drive taking him away from mommy again. There, the doctor listened to what I had to say about possible brain damage causing difficulties and medications causing symptoms to worsen. I even mentioned Dr. Gary Sach’s report concerning the “kindling effect” of medications being stronger and stronger until a raging fire spewed that was nearly uncontrollable.
He was sympathetic, but uninterested. He placed my son on Zoloft and a week later, I had him back. And again, the same pattern. Once again, back in my arms, I knew that medication was not working for my son. Yet this time I was under Social Services scrutiny almost daily, demanding to know whether or not I was giving my son the medication the doctor had prescribed. By this time, though, years of overmedication had brought on psychotic episodes and dangerous outbursts. I contacted KidsPeace in Romulus, NY, who agreed to accept the child to help me straighten out the medication difficulties, help me get a brain scan to determine if it was medical or emotional, and give my son needed counseling and assistance in controlling himself. Seemed like a WONDERFUL setup. Finally, somebody willing to help me. A facility willing to listen to ME. The only difficulty was that all entrants had to be under foster care through Social Services.
Breaking my heart badly, I broke down and asked the local Social Services to temporarily take custody of my son so that he could be placed in this residential treatment center to help him detoxify and learn the real cause of his troubles.
Over 80 miles away, we drove with our son, all of us crying, and placed our baby in these people’s 24 hour care. At first, everything was great. For three weeks he liked being secure, but the psychiatrist took him off all other medications and immediately put him on Zoloft and Risperdal. I spoke with the psychiatrist about my concerns of medications and why we couldn’t try brain scans and therapy.
What a SEVERELY different attitude I got from the day I signed my son over to these people. Suddenly once again I was told to mind my own business. That I was a mere mother, not educated in medicine or children’s therapies. I was told that they needed to stabilize him first, then brain scans would come later. Heartbroken, and basically told “don’t call us, we’ll call you”, cut off from my son except for two fifteen minute calls a week and two visits for a few hours twice a month, I became determined to find out for myself my rights. I put my full soul and heart into research.
For four months, I spent hours on the computer reading anything I could about medications, ADHD, Bipolar, therapy, brain injury and even parental rights. I started getting MADDER. The fight came back. The determination to be a part of my son’s therapy and treatment went to front burner. Again, I was met with extreme prejudice. Met with barriers and statements to stop being so pushy and let them do their jobs. My son got physically abused and sexually abused at the site. The psychiatrist REFUSED to remove the Risperdal from my son, but reluctantly removed the Zoloft after I threatened to drive to the site, find him in his office and sit on him and force him to read pamphlets stating Zoloft was NOT meant for children. I was SERIOUS, too, lemme tell you. That tone came through the phone CLEARLY. After all, THIS IS MY son.
NOT Child Protective’s. NOT KidsPeace. After the Zoloft was removed, he showed a remarkable difference. It was like night and day. He was suddenly able to participate in groups more often, enjoying things like reading and TV again, and even laughing more. To further enforce my rights, I demanded more visitation rights. Demanded more phone calls.
I refused to back down. Daniel started getting Excellents and Goods instead of Poor and Failing’s. I also arranged for my son to be taken to Syracuse for a proper brain scan thanks to my ex husband’s insurance on my son. HALLELUIAH, we finally had the proof we needed My son was INDEED brain
injured as I’d been SCREAMING about to Child Protective, doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, nosy social workers, undertrained overworked teachers, neighbors and bus monitors. I was yelling it to ANYONE that would listen. He was NOT ADHD, OR Bipolar. I IMMEDIATELY demanded my son be taken OFF all medications and rely only on therapy and ways to help him. The new staff psychiatrist refused, stating she needed a full neuropsychiatric workup to prove he didn’t have ADHD. So I set up a full battery of tests through Dr. Thomas Griffiths of Syracuse, an expert in brain injury.
Sure enough, my son’s tests proved that he simply could not ingest information as quickly as other children due to brain injury, could not retain that information as easily, and would get frustrated because he was a gifted child who knew something was wrong.
BINGO. THE PROOF I NEEDED. MY SON WAS NOT ADHD, or BIPOLAR. I HAPPILY and personally presented that proof to Child Protective, the staff at KidsPeace who by now resented my interference with their program, resented my pushiness to be involved with my son’s treatment, and resented my stern warnings that I would no longer be treated like a second class citizen.) to neighbors, to anyone in three states that had EVER given me static about being a lowly mother. I was certain that now I would finally get the right treatment for my son.
You’d think so, right?: WRONG. The psychiatrist STILL refused to take my son off the Risperdal, even after a full team meeting I had to sit through and listen to her tell me and the full staff that what was WRONG with my son was emotional, that his parent’s difficulties and divorce and instabilities were driving Daniel’s emotions, listen to her state the ‘wonderful benefits” of the Risperdal and how Daniel was doing SO much better on it. With Child Protective listening in on the phone, I firmly and angrily stated that not only did we have PROOF that Daniel was a brain injured child and NOT ADHD, we had PROOF that I’d downloaded and printed out showing the facts that certain medications actually bring ON psychotic episodes in children. CAUSED aggravations. I had PROOF that the medicine he was on wasn’t even supposed to be USED by children under 18 and PROOF from Daniel’s neuropsychiatry reports that he simply couldn’t function in a regular class and needed more one on one, and circumstantial proof that by removing the Zoloft, Daniel was responding better, not that the Risperdal was working better.
I laid in to each and every member on that staff that had given me a stone wall before I got that proof. The last six years of pain and feeling of uselessness came pouring out and I asserted my rights as my son’s mother. THIS TIME, I knew, I would NOT BACK DOWN. The psychiatrist held her ground. Risperdal was simply doing him good. The next thing I have to listen to is her psychologist partner, a Sigmund Freud wannabe who obviously did not have the research and background experience I had on the topics of toxic poisoning, brain injury and ADHD tell me that it was his professional opinion that my son’s brain injury had nothing to do with his outburst, that he’d “studied” carbon poisoning online and found nothing to tie in Daniel’s symptoms with the actual disease, and that he agreed with the psychiatrist, it was simply us as parents who failed our son by divorcing, by child abuse and by moving cross country and that he was going to turn over all the information to a doctor he knew in Upstate NY that was an expert. I looked at this Bugs Bunny figure of a staff psychologist and smirked “Well, you know what? His DOCTOR seems to think he DOES have brain injury, and those little dark specks on his SPEC scan sure AIN’T SPIDERWEBS, are they.” Child Protective suddenly became compliant. They backed me at that meeting.
So the psychiatrist agreed reluctantly to remove one milligram of the four my son was on for a month to see if it made a difference. Then she had the nerve to tell me that my son would defiantly show signs of withdrawal and was I prepared to increase the dosage to keep him from hurting himself or
others? I looked at this woman with a disbelief in my eyes I’m sure she saw, shook my head sadly and said “Hun, what do you think WITHDRAWAL of drugs IS? OF COURSE he’s going to have symptoms. Like ANY addiction, whether it’s alcohol, nicotine or drugs. How ridiculous can you be?????” With that, the meeting ended, and once I got home and had time to think, I called the psychiatrist who REFUSED to read medical reports, look at proof of brain injury or heed advice from another psychiatrist who specialized in brain injured children and left a rather harsh message, stating she had SIX WEEKS to wean my son from the Risperdal or I was coming in full barrel with a lawyer and a malpractice suit.
The very next day, I was called by Child Protective, who has now agreed to give me my son back, stating they agreed with me that I was right all along on my son’s actual diagnosis. On that day, I sat on the floor, unable to answer, phone still in my hand, years of fighting, years of severe anger outbursts from a child overmedicated and not knowing why his little body was hurting so bad, missed weeks and weeks of not being able to hold my baby boy, and years of battling for my rights as the child’s parent, nights and nights of holding a crying child because he didn’t know what was happening, years of struggling just to make ends meet and constantly worrying about rent, utilities, food, years of research to finally prove my point all came flooding out, silent tears flowing down my cheeks as I’d finally, I’d FINALLY won. Or HAD I? Just earlier that week, I had a note from my youngest boy’s teacher, who stated my little clown could not and would not sit still in class, and perhaps could benefit from a drug like Ritalin. I busted out laughing, still holding the phone, not caring if Child Protective heard or not, and FRANKLY, my dear, I didn’t give a damn.
That was seven months ago, and I’m STILL under court order to drug my son even though I have moved to another state.
Cynthia Gallaher
2144 Memorial Ave
Roanoke, VA 24015
540-397-2255
CrazyRnIRE@aol.com
Vaccines can do no wrong. Even though 13 kids needed treatment in a hospital right after they were vaccinated, it doesn't mean the vaccines had anything to do with it. Maybe it was the salad they had for lunch.....they can be so dangerous you know....On Wednesday, Health Minister Jane Hutt said there were no grounds for suspecting any fault with the BCG vaccine which left 13 pupils needing treatment.
Again...medical treatment at school. Is there a shortage of doctors offices?
'Vaccine' schoolboy goes home
The teenager at the centre of a vaccination scare in Aberystwyth has been discharged from hospital. Dominic Hamer, 13, returned home at lunchtime on Friday. The Ysgol Gyfun Penweddig pupil suffered a severe allergic reaction to a BCG vaccine being administered to students at the school on Monday. He was admitted to the town's Bronglais hospital and spent a night in intensive care before being transferred to a general ward. Two other pupils, who were also treated in hospital, were discharged on Wednesday. Another 10 students also received medical help at Bronglais after suffering "adverse effects" to the injections.
Nearly 120 pupils at the comprehensive school were being injected with the BCG vaccine, which combats tuberculosis. Brian Thomas, head of corporate service for Ceredigion and Mid Wales Trust, said: "Dominic was discharged at lunchtime (on Friday) and he had made a full recovery. "The other two children who spent time in hospital were discharged on Wednesday." Ceredigion NHS Trust is also investigating and the batch of vaccine has been withdrawn. On Wednesday, Health Minister Jane Hutt said there were no grounds for suspecting any fault with the BCG vaccine which left 13 pupils needing treatment.
Ms Hutt told assembly members at Cardiff Bay: "The National Public Health Service is investigating the circumstances and the initial indications are that there are no grounds for suspecting that there is any fault with this batch of the vaccine." The minister added that the vaccine batch had been used extensively without any reaction of the kind experienced at the Aberystwyth school.
She said that the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency's initial assessment also indicated that, "this is an isolated incident and there's no reason to suspect there's a problem with the vaccine." Dominic was said to have had an anaphylactic shock, which is defined as a very sudden serious physical reaction caused by an allergy. The trust has said it is working closely with the school to ensure that pupils and parents receive any information or support they require. The daughter of Plaid Cymru Ceredigion MP Simon Thomas was another pupil who had a reaction to the vaccine.
He said the mater needed to be examined "as a matter of urgency."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/wales/mid_/4026147.stm
Published: 2004/11/19 15:53:28 GMT
© BBC MMIV
More medical experimentation at school.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/center/mission/articles/flumist.html
CIDRAP to participate in nasal flu vaccine study
Two CIDRAP staff members, Kris Moore, MD, MPH, and Elizabeth McClure, MD, are preparing to be part of a national multicenter study on the impact of administering FluMist influenza vaccine in the elementary school setting to eligible school-aged children. FluMist, which is given via nasal spray (no shots are involved), is currently licensed for use in children who are at least 5 years of age.
The Minnesota portion of the study will be conducted in St. Cloud next school year (2004-05). Drs. Moore and McClure anticipate enrolling nine elementary schools. FluMist vaccine will be offered free-of-charge in the school setting to children in three "target" schools, and the remaining six schools will serve as "control" schools (where vaccine will not be offered free in the school setting).
Information on illness rates among school children and their family members will be collected during the peak of the influenza season. The rates in the target and control schools will be compared. In addition, school absenteeism rates will be monitored in all participating schools during the entire school year.
The overall goal of the study is to determine whether giving FluMist in the school setting can reduce school absenteeism rates and/or illness rates in family members during the annual influenza season. Addressing this question will provide important public health information and will be used to inform national childhood influenza vaccination policies.
The study is sponsored by MedImmune, maker of FluMist vaccine.
Area schools offer on-site health clinics
Published: April 4, 2005
http://www.bendbulletin.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=16029
By Ernestine Bousquet
The Bulletin
MADRAS — While his mom waited, Clint Haugen, 12, a sixth-grader at Jefferson County Middle School, got his eyes and ears checked and his reflexes tested during a sports physical exam at a school-based health clinic in Jefferson County. Clint was heading back to class in less than an hour after getting a clean bill of health to run track. The full-scale health clinic, which is temporarily located in a mobile home trailer behind Madras High School, is available to all students in Jefferson County.
Students in La Pine also have a health care center at their doorstep, where they can seek treatment for illnesses and injuries and get immunizations, physicals and wellness exams. The centers are also targeting adolescents, providing a safe haven where they can access mental health care treatment, find out about the downfalls of drug and alcohol use or get answers about nutrition or how their body functions.
Run by the county health departments in each community, the school-based health clinics are bringing health care to youth who can't afford it, who want to deal with health problems privately or who have no place else to go. The goal is to keep students healthy and in school, health officials say. While the health centers charge for services, they will see anyone regardless of their ability to pay.
Subject: Michigan school has mercury spill
Battle Creek school remains closed following mercury spill
(Battle Creek, May 11, 2005, 4:23 p.m.) A Battle Creek school will be closed for a second consecutive day on Thursday, following a mercury spill at the building. W.K. Kellogg Middle School was evacuated Tuesday following the spill in a classroom.
Authorities say a student found a capsule of mercury inside his garage at home and apparently brought it to school. At some point the capsule broke, spilling two to four ounces of mercury on the
floor. The fire department and a hazmat crew were called to the school.
Ten students and two employees were decontaminated as a precaution. Some of them had the mercury on their legs, while others had it on their arms. They didn't suffer any injuries. The school was closed Wednesday and will remain closed Thursday as crews continue to clean up the mess.
Even more terrible a second Michigan school (high school) had a copy cat incident the next day! This time two students were caught playing with mercury in class. This is just nuts!
Preserving Vaccination Exemption Choice:The Legal And Scientific Issues
By Tim O'Shea, D.C.
http://www.todayschiropractic.com/archives/mar_apr_02/preserving_vacc_choice
.html
In every state of the union except two (Mississippi and West Virginia), parents have the legal right to exempt their children from all vaccinations. Whether or not others disagree with that decision is immaterial to that right. In light of the social and political opposition to such a choice, parents who would embark upon this unpopular course of action often have to face much greater obstacles than just learning about the dangers of vaccines.
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The parents can become victims of uninformed people in authority who think they can enforce their own illegal opinions upon the public. Dr. Colleen Conger-Brass and Dr. Michael Brass found themselves in just such a situation. They have a 9-year-old son Sean, who is in the third grade at a San Jose, Calif., school. On Feb. 27, 2001, they received a phone call from the school principal, with whom they have a good relationship.
The principal informed the couple that they had a choice: Either Sean must be put back into another grade, or else he must be kept at home, indefinitely. The reason? Sean's teacher was pregnant and her OB-GYN had just informed her and the principal that being exposed to an unvaccinated child would place her fetus at risk of birth defects.
This is a reference to the extremely rare possibility of birth defects supposedly possible for a woman who contracts rubella in the first four months of pregnancy. The pregnant teacher had been vaccinated for rubella with the standard MMR shots.
Not wishing their son's school progress to be disrupted, the parents opted to keep Sean at home. For the next week, they agonized about the situation, trying to find some legal or scientific way out of the dilemma. It was shocking and baffling to them that their child could be suddenly deprived of his education just because they had exercised their legal right not to vaccinate.
During this time, the parents contacted the Santa Clara County Health Department to see what its stance was. The department responded immediately with a letter, which stated that in all of Santa Clara County there had only been two cases of rubella since 1992, with the exception of a small epidemic that occurred in a local jail. Two cases in nine years had been recorded in a county with over one million people.
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The letter also quoted California Health and Safety Codes, Section 12035, that provides for a child to be excluded from school if he has been exposed to a communicable disease. And in this case, the Santa Clara County Health Department stated that obviously "there is no reason to believe an exposure to rubella has occurred." Still, the school persisted in excluding the child. The principal was relying on the incorrect, and wildly unscientific, opinion of the OB-GYN, who had sent the school a letter apparently claiming that there was a high likelihood of birth defects from Sean being in the same classroom with the vaccinated pregnant teacher. The parents, at their wit's end, were given no time estimate about how long this arbitrary and illegal exclusion would continue.
Finally, on March 6, the principal called from the school to inform the Drs.Brass that Sean could return to school because the teacher had left, apparently at the advice of her OB-GYN. It seems likely that the school's lawyers had informed the principal of the school's tenuous legal position in excluding a legally exempted and perfectly healthy child from attending school. So now everything is fine, right? The family has to suffer great emotional trauma, and the child loses part of his education while those in authority figure out what the law is. No harm, no foul, right?
Let's take a closer look at what really happened here.
The unconscionable situation that this doctor imagines he can arbitrarily impose upon these parents calls up two areas of concern:
* issues of law and
* issues of science.
Issues of Law
Article 3, Section 6025, of the California Health and Safety Codes states:
"Any pupil age 18 months or older who has received all the immunizations required for his/her age . or who has documented a permanent medical exemption or a permanent beliefs exemption to immunization . shall be admitted unconditionally as a pupil to a given public or private elementary or secondary school, [or] child care center."
This law is very clear. These parents have signed the California exemption form, as provided by state and federal law. These laws are not subject to interpretation by unilateral, arbitrary self-appointed guardians of the public health. The issues of exemption from vaccination have been decided in meticulous detail by the U.S. Department of Public Health, as well as by the California Department of Health and Safety, after years of study.
This doctor sought to place himself above state and federal law by imagining that he has had some new insight into the whole medical-legal arena of immunization which heretofore had never occurred to any of the experts, and luckily he has arrived just in time to save us. Such hubris is egregious enough in itself, but what is even more remarkable is that the school principal followed this ill-considered course of action without question, and he immediately removed the child from the classroom. This action is the second, independent decision for which the school may now bear responsibility and liability for violations of the parents' rights to education without discrimination.
In practice outside New York City, attorney James Filenbaum specializes in cases involving violations of parents' rights to exemption from immunization and in vaccine damages compensation cases. In a telephone discussion about the Sean Brass case, Filenbaum explained some of the possible dangers such a school may be looking at by relying on an incorrect and untenable medical opinion. For a school to deprive a perfectly healthy child of his legal right to education because of some highly speculative and very eccentric medical opinions may violate civil rights that are specifically defined in federal law (Federal Title 28, Section 1983).
Issues of Science
The doctor's position may be summarized as follows: He has the notion that since the teacher is pregnant, she is susceptible to getting rubella from the unvaccinated child, and transferring the disease to her unborn fetus, resulting in a likelihood of birth defects-in spite of the fact that the teacher herself has taken the MMR vaccine.
Trying to follow the logic of such reasoning is a daunting task. Since the teacher is vaccinated, shouldn't that make her immune to the disease? If she is immune to the disease, what difference does it make even if this child gets the disease? Wasn't the purpose of the vaccine to protect her from the disease? So now the doctor wants the child to be vaccinated with that same vaccine in order to protect the child from the disease? But if vaccination didn't protect the teacher, why would it protect the student?
First of all, this doctor is creating undue hysteria by imagining multiple events, each of which has only a remote possibility of occurring alone. The chances of them occurring in sequence are infinitesimal. Those events are:
1. That the child will get rubella in the next few weeks, before the teacher becomes four months pregnant.
2. That the teacher would catch rubella from the child before he stayed home sick.
3. That the teacher would spread the disease to the fetus, and that would cause a birth defect.
Let's look at the first event. The student is not sick now. In a county of one million people, there had been only two cases of rubella in the past nine years.The incidence of rubella in the U.S. is now at its lowest rate in history (Merck Manual, p. 237). The rare danger of a mother getting rubella during pregnancy is only in the first 16 weeks, as far as a fetus is concerned (Merck Manual, p. 2185). The teacher was already at 12 weeks. So what are the chances of this healthy student being one of the two in a million cases of rubella in nine years during the next four weeks? You couldn't place the bet!
One can't help but wonder: Where would Sean get the rubella from, if all the other kids in the school were vaccinated? Doesn't their vaccinations work?
<http://www.todayschiropractic.com/archives/mar_apr_02/preserving_vacc_choice3.jpg>
Now, consider the second event: The teacher catches rubella from the student. But how could that happen? She's already been vaccinated. And let's not forget the prime fact here: This child is totally healthy. It would take a lot more than medical paranoia to make him sick. Finally, examine the third event: What are the chances of birth defects? According to the latest edition of the Merck Manual, the chances of birth defects are less than 3 percent as a result of the mother getting the vaccine during early pregnancy (p. 2328). The chances of birth defects from the mother contracting natural rubella disease are so low they have not been calculated. No figure is even estimated in Merck.
So, taking all three of these events together, they would have to happen in sequence in order for this student to cause a birth defect in the teacher's fetus. Such a likelihood is astronomically low. The chances are much greater that the woman would be killed in an auto accident during the same time period. It would make more sense to take away her driver's license. Let's introduce some rational discourse into this overblown situation. Virtually all medical sources agree that rubella has historically been a mild, self-limiting childhood disease which required no treatment. Most baby boomers got the disease, had slight discomfort for a week and now have full immunity for life.
In the early 1960s along came the MMR vaccine, a trivalent that was never tested as such (Wakefield). Mendelsohn estimates that an 85 percent immunity to this mild disease existed before the vaccine was introduced. So they needed a selling point-a big scare. Suddenly, with no solid statistics of incidence, the remote possibility of fetal damage became the slogan that won FDA approval and inclusion into the mandated schedule. Since then, we've never looked back.
Immunity and Side Effects
All these shenanigans still wouldn't be so bad if the vaccine were harmless. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Even Merck admits that the vaccine only confers immunity for "about 11 years." That's not immunity. Real immunity is for life. Real immunity is something only the human body can create after getting a disease.
The problem with rubella is that the vaccinated can still contract it after the artificial immunity wears off. But by that time, they're usually adults, and the atypical version is a much more serious disease in adulthood. You may be surprised to learn that we traded a mild disease that has been around for centuries, causing very little trouble, for a serious mutation that is doing its part in the de-evolution of the human genome.
Viera Scheibner, Ph.D., the premier Australian researcher in the area of vaccinations, hammers home the most devastating side effect of experimental vaccines like MMR and DPT. Worse than the side effects listed, even including the occasional death, is the evolutionary cul de sac in which ourddisregard of the scientific method is entrapping us.
Scheibner likens what vaccines are doing to our collective human DNA-our genome-to making a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox of something. Look at it after 10 generations, then after 50 generations, of constant de-evolution, diluting and weakening the DNA that took our species a million years to evolve. So what do we learn from case of Sean Brass? It is hoped that we will learn the rules of law and science that come to bear on this situation. These parents had a sovereign right to choose not to vaccinate their son. Even those of us who may not agree with that decision must agree at least to their right to make it. Because those personal freedoms that we do not defend are being inexorably eroded away, day by day, by a thousand little media slurs and a thousand shrugged shoulders.
What would be the chances of the first 10 constitutional amendments making it through Congress today? Slim to none. Most people don't even know what the Bill of Rights is. America is the only country in the history of the world that would even consider placing all that freedom, and all that power, in the hands of the people. Most Americans seem to think it's fine to hand these hard-won, precious rights back to the government, because they're too busy to educate themselves about the principles involved. Study vaccines? That's my doctor's job. I can't be bothered to learn what's good for my children and then
demand it.
The right to choose chiropractic care? That's up to my insurance. I can't be bothered to learn what's good for my body and then demand it. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
About the author: Tim O'Shea, D.C., a 1986 Life Chiropractic College West graduate, is an author and lecturer in the areas of chiropractic, nutrition and vaccines. He has been in private practice in San Jose, Calif., since 1990. He is the author of The Sanctity of Human Blood and presents seminars in the U.S. and Europe. For more information, visit his web site at www.thedoctorwithin.com.
C Copyright 2002 Today's Chiropractic
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January 10, 2006
Dear parents/guardians,
This letter is to notify you that there have been about 30 cases of chickenpox reported at Longfellow School. According to the school nurse, Ms. Janet Rivard, the majority of the students in the school have been vaccinated with one dose of varicella (chickenpox) vaccine. However, since one dose of the vaccine is only about 70-90% effective for preventing chickenpox, it is not unusual to see chickenpox disease in children who have been vaccinated. Although chickenpox in vaccinated children is usually a milder form of the disease, vaccinated children who become infected with the disease are still contagious. Therefore, the Maine Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is working with Longfellow School to prevent more cases and is offering a free vaccination clinic on Thursday, January 12, 2006 for all Longfellow students at the school during regular school hours. All students are encouraged to receive the varicella vaccination, unless they have a documented history of chickenpox disease. You may accompany your child to the clinic if you wish, but this is not necessary as long as your child has a signed consent form.
Background on Chickenpox
Chickenpox is a very contagious infection caused by a virus. It is spread from person to person by direct contact or through the air from an infected person’s coughing or sneezing. It causes a blister-like rash, itching, tiredness, and fever. Most children recover without any problems. Chickenpox can be spread for 1-2 days before the rash starts and until all blisters are crusted. It takes about 10-21 days after contact with an infected person for someone to develop chickenpox.
What should you do?
Maine CDC strongly encourages you to have your child receive the varicella vaccine at the free vaccination clinic if your child has not had chickenpox in the past and has either never received the chickenpox vaccination or has only had one dose of the vaccine. Although your childs’s provider administers chickenpox vaccine in his/her office, this vaccine is provided by the state and is for routine immunization rather than outbreak control. Therefore, if you would like your child to receive a second dose, he/she should be vaccinated at the school.
If your child or anyone in your household currently has symptoms that look like chickenpox (If your child is infected and has received one dose of chickenpox vaccination, he or she may only have a few red spots but no blisters. These spots may look like insect bites.)
1. Contact your regular health care provider to discuss your child's symptoms.
2. Contact the school nurse to report your child's chickenpox.
3. Avoid contact with others who have not had chickenpox or who are not vaccinated against chickenpox. They should not attend school, day care, work, parties and/or other gatherings until the blisters become crusted (about 5-7 days after rash appears).
4. Keep all chickenpox spots and blisters and other wounds clean and watch for possible signs of infection; including increasing redness, swelling, drainage and pain at the blister site.
5. If you or anyone else in your household has a weakened immune system or is pregnant and has never had chickenpox or the vaccine, talk with your doctor immediately.
6. Thoroughly wash your hands and children’s hands after wiping noses and before eating or preparing food. Discourage children from sharing food, cups, and spoons, drinking straws or toys that they put in their mouths.
Please review, sign, and return the attached form to the school.
If you have any further question or concerns, you can contact Ms. Rivard or call the Maine Immunization Program at 1-800-867-4775.
Application/Mississippi National Guard Plans WMD Drill
http://www.nti.org/d_newswire/issues/2006_4_18.html#D23DFCAF
Mississippi National Guard Plans WMD Drill
Members of the Mississippi National Guard tomorrow are scheduled to conduct a drill involving the suspected release of a lethal agent, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, June 27, 2005). After an unidentified biological agent or chemical is detected in Canton, Quick Reactionary Force teams are to land by helicopter and secure the area around the city's Multipurpose Complex. The 47th Civil Support Team, which was formed last year to deal with WMD incidents, will hunt for the agent. Another 70 soldiers are expected to provide additional support. The exercise is scheduled to last around three hours, ending when no indications are found of a dangerous substance, AP reported (Associated Press, April 18).
Meanwhile, emergency and school officials in Gwinnett County, Ga., yesterday conducted a sarin attack exercise at a mock high school, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The exercise was a simulation of a gas attack on a school of 2,000 students. Sarin was released at the entrance to "Suwanee High School" - in actuality a schools training center - killing a faculty member and injuring a number of students. The drill involved county police and fire personnel, school officials, and officials from the cities of Duluth and Suwanee, the Journal-Constitution reported. "It went real well," said county Fire Department spokesman Thomas Rutledge. "I think agencies walked away with a better understanding of each others' duties, responsibilities and capabilities" (John Ghirardini, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 18).
Media Release From Tony Abbott
The Commonwealth Government will fund the cervical cancer vaccine, Gardasil®, for girls and women aged 12 to 26 from 2007.
Gardasil® will be put on the National Immunisation Programme on an ongoing basis for 12 to 13 year old girls to be delivered through schools. The Government will also fund a two year catch-up programme for 13 to 18 year old girls in schools and 18 to 26 year old women to be delivered through GPs.
The expected cost of the vaccine is $436 million between 2006-07 and 2009-10.
The initial submission from the vaccine’s maker, CSL, was considered by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) in early November. At that time the PBAC was unable to recommend funding of Gardasil due to concerns about its cost-effectiveness.
Given the possibility of introducing an immunisation program through schools in 2007, I asked the PBAC to consider a revised submission from CSL at an extraordinary meeting. I would like to thank the PBAC for agreeing to this unusual request.
CSL agreed to reduce the price of Gardasil and provided the PBAC with additional information about its long-term effectiveness. CSL has undertaken to make a substantial contribution to any booster program if it becomes necessary in the next 20 years and to the costs of setting up a national register to link vaccination data to later cervical screening records. The PBAC found that Gardasil is cost-effective at the new price offered.
All the usual PBAC processes have been undertaken in the consideration of the revised submission for Gardasil. The accelerated timeframe for consideration has not compromised the quality of the decision-making process.
The Commonwealth Government calls on state and territories governments to make every effort to ensure that arrangements are in place to implement a school-based immunisation program in 2007. We will also work with doctors’ groups to establish processes for vaccinations for eligible women who are no longer at school.
A school safety drill that included police officers in riot gear with weapons has caused concern among some parents who say it was too realistic and frightened some students.Police in the western Michigan community of Wyoming entered two classrooms at Lee Middle and High School on Thursday and announced there was a threat to the school, The Grand Rapids Press reported.
Students, who were unaware police were conducting a drill, were taken from the classroom into the halls, patted down by officers and asked what they had in their pockets, the newspaper said.
"Some of these kids were so scared, they just about wet their pants," said Marge Bradshaw, a parent with four children in Godfrey-Lee Schools. "I think it's pure wrong that the students and parents were not informed of this."
Apr 5, 2007 7:51 pm US/Eastern
13-Year-Old Arrested In School For Writing On DeskPrincipal Urges Cops To Arrest Girl For Writing 'Okay'Tanya Rivero
Reporting
(CBS) NEW YORK In this day and age where young students are frequently charged for serious school offenses such as possessing weapons, dealing drugs, or assaulting other students on school property, one Brooklyn teen's arrest may come as a surprise. A 13-year-old girl was handcuffed and placed under arrest in front of her classmates in Dyker Heights after she wrote "Okay" on her desk.
The "suspect," Chelsea Fraser, says she's sorry for scribbling the word on her desk, but both she and her mother are shocked at the punishment.
"I'm appalled, because here we have rapists, murderers, and you're taking a 13-year-old kid? Wasting valuable manpower to arrest a child who wrote on a desk?" Fraser's mother Diana Silva told CBS 2.
Police confirm that that's exactly what's written on her arrest record and for the crime, she's been charged with criminal mischief and the making of graffiti. Fraser says the day she marked her desk, she was wrongly grouped together with troublemakers who had plastered stickers all over the classroom.
Fraser was arrested at the Dyker Heights Intermediate School on March 30 along with three other male students. She says she was made to empty her pockets and take off her belt. Then she was handcuffed and led out of the school in front of her classmates and placed in the back of a police car.
"It was really embarrassing because some of the kids, they talk, and they're going to label me as a bad kid. But I'm really not," Fraser said. "I didn't know writing 'Okay' would get me arrested."
"All the kids were ... watching these three boys and my daughter being marched out with four -- they had four police officers -- walking them out, handcuffed," Silva said. "She goes to me, 'Mommy, these hurt!'"
The students were taken to the 68th Precinct station house where Silva says they were separated for three hours. "MY child is 13-years-old -- doesn't it stand that I'm supposed to be present for any questioning?" Silva said. "I'm watching my daughter, she's handcuffed to the pole. I ask the officer has she been there the entire time? She says, 'Yes.'"
On her report card, under conduct, Fraser has earned all "satisfactory" marks and one "excellent" mark.
"My daughter just wrote something on a desk. I would have her scrub it with Soft Scrub on a Saturday morning when she should be out playing, and maybe a day of in-house and a formal apology to the principal," Silva said.
CBS 2 contacted both the NYPD and the Board of Education for a response. The police say the arrests followed a request by the school's principal. The Board of Education said the matter is under investigation, adding that graffiti was found on several desks.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_095170448.html
http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/teachers-stage-fake-gun-attack-on-kids/20070513232409990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001Teachers Stage Fake Gun Attack on Kids
AP
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (May 14) - Staff members of an elementary school staged a fictitious gun attack on students during a class trip, telling them it was not a drill as the children cried and hid under tables.
The mock attack Thursday night was intended as a learning experience and lasted five minutes during the weeklong trip to a state park, said Scales Elementary School Assistant Principal Don Bartch, who led the trip.
"We got together and discussed what we would have done in a real situation," he said.
But parents of the sixth-grade students were outraged.
"The children were in that room in the dark, begging for their lives, because they thought there was someone with a gun after them," said Brandy Cole, whose son went on the trip.
Some parents said they were upset by the staff's poor judgment in light of the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech that left 33 students and professors dead, including the gunman.
During the last night of the trip, staff members convinced the 69 students that there was a gunman on the loose. They were told to lie on the floor or hide underneath tables and stay quiet. A teacher, disguised in a hooded sweat shirt, even pulled on locked door.
After the lights went out, about 20 kids started to cry, 11-year-old Shay Naylor said.
"I was like, 'Oh My God,' " she said. "At first I thought I was going to die. We flipped out."
Principal Catherine Stephens declined to say whether the staff members involved would face disciplinary action, but said the situation "involved poor judgment."
The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List
From Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue 1
1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?
2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.
3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.
4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.
5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.
6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.
7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.
8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.
9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.
10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.
11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.
12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.
13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.
14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.
15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it.. So go be shallow somewhere else.
16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.
17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.
18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.
19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.
20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.
21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.
22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.
23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.
24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.
25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!
http://www.secular-homeschooling.com/001/bitter_homeschooler.html
Shannon Primer who lives in Oceanside but is in Carlsbad Unified School District
Schools await word on mumps vaccine for students
Ministry of Healthy Living taking a wait-and-see approach to Fraser Valley outbreak
CATHRYN ATKINSON AND ANNA MEHLER PAPERNY http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080828.BCMUMPS28/TPStory/National
August 28, 2008
SQUAMISH AND VANCOUVER -- B.C. Education Minister Shirley Bond says her staff will be ready if called upon to arrange for mumps vaccinations in schools after they reopen next week.
In an interview yesterday, Ms. Bond had concerns that returning children could be hit by the mumps outbreak in the Fraser Valley that has left at least 190 people infected since it started in February.
Experts from the newly created Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport will decide whether to initiate school-based vaccinations if the outbreak grows into an epidemic, she said.
"It's not a decision I would make, Health would, and we are waiting to hear from the experts in the ministry who are looking at what the next steps might be. If needed we are prepared to make it happen as effectively as possible."
Ms. Bond said that, for the moment, the Fraser Health Authority is offering vaccinations to families that want them. The agency confirmed Tuesday that the outbreak started in a Chilliwack community that does not vaccinate its children on religious grounds.
"Parents need to be aware of the circumstances and be listening for information," Ms. Bond said. "A strategy is being put together and we will be ready at the school level to respond. My goal at the moment is to be sure of accommodating any request or expectation."
Her counterpart at Healthy Living and Sport, Mary Polak, said the ministry is taking a wait-and-see approach about whether to offer vaccinations at schools. "At this stage, we won't be providing immunization clinics but through the Provincial Health Officer we will be monitoring any potential cases that we see in schools and providing those immunization opportunities should the need arise."
Asked whether the ministry will consider mandatory vaccinations if the outbreak becomes an epidemic, Ms. Polak said officials have to be mindful of human rights.
"I believe that parents always want what is best for their kids, though they make different decisions around immunizations," she said, adding that the ministry is looking at a system Ontario uses to track who is vaccinated and who is not.
Julianne Doctor of the Vancouver School Board District Parent Advisory Council is worried the outbreak will spread to Vancouver.
She said in an interview that although she respects people's choice not to immunize their children, she wants to see infected youngsters quarantined to protect other children.
"If there's an outbreak and your kid's not immunized, keep them home - don't just continue to spread the [virus] around. Ideally, this should be a quarantine issue."
Although her daughter, who is going into Grade 10, has had her shots, Ms. Doctor said she would like to see mumps vaccines offered in schools in the face of the outbreak.
"They do it for hepatitis and the boosters, you know, polio and whatnot. They do it at school, so why not mumps?"
The outbreak has spread to Burnaby from Chilliwack. It stemmed from a single case in a Chilliwack religious community that rejected vaccinations.
Mumps is usually rare but highly infectious. Most of those infected will have either cold-like symptoms or none at all, while a third have swelling and inflammation in their salivary glands or other tissues. Deafness, sterility or death can occur, although rarely.
Chilliwack School District Parent Advisory Council president Kirsten Brandreth said she has no hesitation about sending her two children to school because they were vaccinated in the spring, early in the outbreak.
"The district was very good and active a few months ago about immunization. So I was happy about that," she said. "I haven't had any concerns addressed to me. ... For Chilliwack, it's been in the paper for quite a few months."
Provincial Health Officer Perry Kendall said he is not seeing the illness spreading in those who have been immunized.
"That being the case, we would be offering clinics on a routine basis. But I think what we'll be doing, particularly in Vancouver, is looking for cases and if we start to see cases, we'll start taking more proactive measures."
Dr. Kendall asked those infected to stay home until they have recovered.
