School
H1N1 shot clinics at all of our Anchorage schools is cause for concern for this parent!
I am sending the following commentary to the Anchorage Daily News, but I have little hope that it will be published. I guess the upside to having your own website is that you can be sure your writing gets published somewhere. Since I’ve labored on this for two days, I figure it’s good enough for rubysoup! 
Earlier this month local news reported that the Anchorage School District would be sending home permission slips for parents to allow their children to receive the H1N1 vaccine at school. Few school districts across the nation have opted to run shot clinics in schools. This decision must raise concern among parents regardless of your position on the vaccine. The most obvious question that comes to my mind is why? Anchorage certainly has plenty of health care facilities, private practitioners and pharmacies that I am sure are all willing to provide access to the H1N1 vaccine and are the obvious choice for medical services for our children. When did the school district become such an expert on our children’s health care?
The concerns about the H1N1 vaccine are valid. If the District intends to administer the nasal spray then they will be giving your children a live virus vaccine. Some hospitals in the Chicago area have declined to have their own health care workers vaccinated with the FluMist because of the small, but very real risk, of actually spreading the virus to sick people. According to Tom Skinner, a spokesman for the CDC, “Theoretically someone who had recently received a FluMist vaccination could spread the virus to someone who was profoundly immunocompromised, such as AIDS patients”. How will a school nurse determine whether or not a person is, or is living with someone who is, immunocompromised? The package insert for FluMist does not recommend use in pregnant women because it can cause “fetal harm or can affect reproduction capacity”. What steps will the District take to assure no pregnant students accidentally receive this vaccine?
If the District does not plan to administer FluMist then they will be using an inactivated flu virus by injection. Each injection will contain 25 micrograms of mercury per dose. Is the District prepared to offer a mercury-free version of the vaccine for those parents who object to having a neurotoxin injected into their children? Are they publicizing the availability of this option? If that is not cause for enough concern, how about the fact that to-date there is no clinical trial data on the safety of either vaccine on pregnant women, children with asthma or on the interaction of this vaccine with other childhood vaccines?
Vaccines are a medical procedure. Patients medical records should be reviewed before giving a vaccine to be sure they are not susceptible to having a reaction. Both types of vaccine, for example, are grown in chicken eggs so anyone with an egg allergy should not be vaccinated. Additionally, any underlying or chronic medical condition should be known and discussed with a practitioner prior to vaccination. Will the District have access to our children’s medical records? Who is making sure that parents are given the opportunity to read and review the Vaccine Information Statement or the product inserts? Who will be recording in our children’s charts the shots they received, the manufacturer, the lot number and any adverse event that may occur? Most of the public is aware that we’ve lost our right to sue the pharmaceutical companies or the government when it comes to vaccines, but what happens if the negligence happens at the point of distribution? Will this become potential liability issue for the District?
By providing free, easy-to-access shot clinics in our schools for the H1N1 vaccine, the District is downplaying the serious, valid concerns about safety and necessity of the H1N1 vaccine. Whether or not to vaccinate yourself or your children against a flu that has proven to be relatively mild for healthy individuals is an important decision that should not be made lightly or because of convenience. The Anchorage School District has no business running shot clinics in our schools. They need to use their time, energy and expertise to educate our children and leave medical interventions in the hands of our primary care physicians.
Special education and parent advocacy
One of the most challenging issues we face raising a child with both cognitive and physical disabilities is school. Quincy attends the same public school that her brother and sister go to. That was important to us and an issue that we had to fight for…the opportunity for her to attend her home school with her siblings and the neighborhood kids. This gets down to the essence of rights for special needs children…the right to the same education all other children enjoy. And that means not busing them to sites set up specifically for intensive needs kids, but instead establishing intensive needs programs within their home schools. But, this is just the tip of the iceberg. When you allow a child like Quincy to be in the care of other people for six hours a day you must have a great deal of trust and respect for those who are caring for her. Quincy cannot talk or tell me when she has been mistreated or scared or frustrated. So the people, the teachers, aides and therapists, who work with her daily must learn how to communicate with her and respond to her cues. This takes an incredible dedication of time and resources for training and education, and this is not something you find in public education. So, we have done a huge amount of work on our own, developing lasting relationships with the people who work with Quincy. We have developed an IEP team that is first loyal to Quincy’s needs and not so much the needs of the school district. This has been tremendous for Quincy, but isn’t always a smooth task. However, Quincy is the first student in our district to remain in elementary school until she is ready to transition directly to high school next year, in effect skipping middle school. The purpose of this was to allow her to remain with the same team as long as possible so she can have the maximum benefit of their expertise and to reduce the incredible stress that comes from transitioning to a new staff and building by simply eliminating the transition to middle school. This works for Quincy because her academic gains are measured in very small increments and most of her time at school is with adults and therapists. This should make the social transition from elementary school to high school fairly smooth. For children who function at a higher level, this may not be the best choice. There are social aspects of middle school that are important for adolescents to be exposed to and it may be awkward and inappropriate for most students to simply skip this important stage of life. The main point is that we were able to mold Quincy’s school experience to what is best for her, not what is easiest or most economical for the school district which is all to often the way decisions get made. Credit must be given to the leadership at our district for looking at new and innovative ways to educate and to be willing to listen and incorporate parent input into this process. Parents must always advocate for the rights of their children, however stressful and time-consuming it may be. No one is going to fight for Quincy except her Dad and I…that’s just another reality of this life we lead.
Categories
National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC)
