Should Parents Vaccinate their children or go to Jail?

Question

I welcome your knowledge, thoughts, opinions, observations, facts on the following:

The parents of more than 2,300 students in Prince George's County, Maryland, could face fines of $50 a day and 10 days in jail if their children do not meet the state's immunization requirements.

Prince George's has been struggling to get its 131,000 students immunized for chicken pox and hepatitis B, as is required by the state. More than 2,300 students have not been immunized, and have therefore been barred from attending schools.

School officials have previously made calls, sent letters and conducted home visits in attempts to make arrangements for free appointments for the shots.

The most recent round of letters ordered the parents to show up at Prince George's Circuit Court for a court hearing and free on-the-spot vaccinations of up to 17 required doses.

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Any child lacking immunizations can be expelled, and their parents then brought up on truancy charges, which can result in a 10-day jail sentence for the first offence, and 30 days for a second.

Angry and upset parents called county’s action “intimidating,” and “very heavy handed.”

School officials deemed the court action a “success,” as the number of children lacking vaccinations dropped from 2,300 to about 1,100 by Friday November 16. That leaves about 900 children out of compliance with the vaccination requirements, said school system spokesman John White.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) issued a press release condemning Maryland’s vaccine roundup, promising to do everything it can to support parents who refuse to immunize their children.

“This power play obliterates informed consent and parental rights,” said Kathryn Serkes, director of policy for the AAPS.
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“This campaign of intimidation to brutally enforce blanket vaccine mandates by government agencies and the school district gives no consideration for the rights of the parents or the individual medical condition of the child.”

The AAPS press release goes on to state, “Children should be carefully screened, medical records taken and decisions made carefully – not in an ad hoc assembly-line clinic in a county courtroom and under the brutal watch of law enforcement. This is a man-made disaster ready and waiting to detonate. Children could receive a dangerous cocktail of several vaccines without proper examinations.”

“The procedure is reckless and subjects children to the risk of severe reactions. Physicians would not be allowed to treat children in this way, without individual histories and physical exams – or informed consent,” said Jane M. Orient, M.D., AAPS Executive Director.

Interestingly, the state's attorney, Mr. Glenn Ivey himself apparently has no problem invoking his own right to informed consent and parental control. In a radio interview on Thursday, November 15, he admitted that he has chosen to refuse the hepatitis B vaccines for his own children. The AAPS stated that Mr. Ivey’s “galling hypocrisy” clearly demonstrates that not every vaccine is right for every child.

Sources:
Washington Post November 14, 2007
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons Press Release November 16, 2007

*****Thank you ALL for contributing your thoughts to my question.

Vaccinations may or may not be beneficial - follow your common sense on this one. And for the record, Common Sense cannot be legislated. It comes from a concerted effort to both educate and empower ourselves. This should always be our personal mandate, to achieve dominion over our own bodies and those who we protect. Choose wisely.*****

For further reading, blog comments, and perhaps the benefit of other points of view including a medical opinion, this link may add other information to your personal wellness arsenal:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2007/12/04/parents-told-to-get-kids-vaccinated-or-go-to-jail.aspx

Answer 1

There are a number of problems...

We have three institutions (educational, medical and parental), all with strong, common goals (e.g., the welfare of children). And they can find no other recourse than to deteriorate into a power struggle?

What has happened to cause so many parents to mistrust school/medical/governmental recommendations? As with most news stories, which have the effect of further polarizing sentiments, we get a detailed sense of who is "wining" without ever truly understanding what "wining" really means.

Are the children safer that get vaccinated or not? Is the problems with the protocol? Are parents worried that this "blanket": approach will miss important individual details. Is it that the parents couldn't afford the original vaccination fee. Are they just lazy? Concerned with mercury or some other issue?

In many situations there is no definitive truth. Decisions are often a "trade-off" with many advantages and disadvantages.. Various factions often have different goals and conflict is anticipated, if not expected. But in this situation it shouldn't become adversarial!

For the school to consider their effort a "success" to be able to "strong arm" a significant number of parents" is absurd, regardless of the value of these vaccinations. To degenerate into the use of such a tactic will continue to foster a deep level of mistrust. Other issues, in the future, are more likely to deteriorate into more power struggles and polarizations which have no value other than to sell a few extra newspapers. Somehow, we seem easily pushed into situations where we focus almost exclusively on what we can do, rather than on what we should do.

I find it incredulous to believe that the school officials had truly made previously calls, sent letters and conducted home visits with an emphasis on educating the parents to the value of this effort, rather than simply to approach the problem as "do it or else" threat. So one is left with the feeling that perhaps, they chose this power tactic, because they could not back up the rational for the vaccinations; or that they actually did attempt to educate the parents, who either did not find that perspective valid, did not understand that perspective, or got caught up in such a power struggle, that the welfare of the children, took a backseat. Whatever the scenario, we seem to have lost our ability to act with intimacy- as a community.

Versus…..(my fantasy)

Many of the parents were quite thankful for the homemade lemonade, but the school officials and teachers said it was the least they could do for all the parents volunteering to spruce up the schoolhouse. Principle Skinner, brought some of his delicious chocolate chip cookies and passed them around as he asked everybody to take a break and sit down. He had a guest speaker that he wanted everybody to hear- a pediatrician who wanted to discuss the pros and cons to vaccination. Everybody was given a chance to voice the perspective and concern. Many questions were answered and reference material was past out. The pediatrician was quite open to discussing both sides to the issue and provided many additional resources for following up additional concerns. The parents were most appreciative of the hotline number given out and the fact that the school saw their role in helping expedite whatever decision the parents felt was right. Since it was a state mandate, the school spent considerable effort in explaining that perspective, but were also quick to help parents that felt to the contrary, the most appropriate way to responding to the state's decision. What became obvious was the high degree of respect that was being paid to everybody. As people felt the issue resolve, they couldn't help but remark how good it felt to work together.

Answer 2

I've read these articles, and school boards and States occasionally try to intimidate people en masse to get their kids vaccinated (not a bad idea since it usually just happens because people are lazy) but there is always a small sentence at the bottom that you can choose to opt out of it for religious or personal reasons.
They know if they really tried to force people to do it they would lose at the Supreme Court level every time, but they try to make it look that way.
Even in this case, all you have to do is go in and explain that you don't want your kids vaccinated. They can't make you do anything. I wouldn't vaccinate my kids again because my eldest had a very severe reaction to his 2nd MMR shot. Any child who has an immune response reaction to a shot should NOT GET ANYMORE!!!!!!

Answer 3

Maryland State law allows for parents to decline certain vaccinations, but there is a procedure to follow. The parents being threatened with fines and jails are those who neither got their kids vaccinated, NOR followed the 'opt-out' procedures.

Laws are there for the benefit of all. Scoff-laws deserve to be punished.

If the law did NOT allow for an opt-out, I'd be strongly opposed to it - but it does (As evidenced by the AG who's opted out for his own kid) and the only excuse the parents who're not in compliance have is that they were too bone idle to go through the process.

Richard

Answer 4

My kids had to have their immunizations to attend school. The only one they haven't had was chicken pox because they had already had them. If the parents don't want to have them immunized then they should consider homeschooling. That might make the school officials reconsider their policies. Personally I took my kids to get their shots for their own protection. I would rather let them be vaccinated than risk an outbreak of some of the diseases that the vaccinations protect against.

Answer 5

Yes they should. In my opinion at least. I am all for people's rights , but think that their rights end when they infringe on people's rights as a mass.

The vacinations protect the other children in school and the general public. We have wiped out small pox and many other things like that through vacinations. Without these vacinations the population might once again have an outbreak from things we should not have to worry about. Many 3rd world countries still have people dying from things we have cured becuase they dont have access to these vacinations. We dont want the same here.

Just like smoking. I beleive that people have the right to smoke if they choose to, but their right to smoke stops when it infringes on other's right not to breath in smoke.

I know there are some risks with vacinations but the risks are outweighed by the benifits of them.

Addition: For the person who said it shouldnt be implimented unless there is a pandemic? If the goverment waited for that to happen people would be up in arms asking why the government waited until it was a problem when they had a solution prior to it happening.

the over all saftey of the public outweighs the personal rights of the parents. This is one of the few things I agree that people choice should not count.

Answer 6

Nobody's going to jail. The school is way beyond their legal rights on this. Don't be surprised if the next notice is a recall of that school board.

Answer 7

The state should almost never have this kind of power over parents.
I say almost because there could come a time when a deadly pandemic was going on and then I could see the state stepping in. Other than that Parents rights prevail.

Answer 8

If they intend to ever have their children be out in public, then sure.

PG County is a very poor county, and it is likely that unvaccinated children cause a public health issue and a drain on limited health resource issues.

If the choice was get the vaccination or provide your own health care, and then a few kids got very sick, it should be sad but maybe make the point persuasively. Too bad common sense is so lacking that it might take that to get it done.