Shots or slammer? It is a choice many Prince George County, MD parents have been given. In what amounts to one of the toughest legal roundups in the US regarding vaccinations, more than 1,600 parents were ordered to appear in circuit court last Saturday (11.17.07) to have their children immunized. Apparently more than 2,000 students are missing their state mandated shots. Some students have missed more than a month of school because of non-compliance. Parents who fail to comply with the court order could face up to 10 days in jail and be fined up to $50.
Saturday was a busy day at the court house with a media frenzy, protesters, parents and children. More than 100 children were immunized during the furor. The root of the uproar stems from a new law that took effect last year requiring students in the 5th through 10th grade to have the chicken pox and hepatitis B vaccines.
According to the Associated Press, twenty-eight states, including Maryland, Florida, Massachusetts, and New York, allow parents to opt out of required vaccinations only for medical or religious reasons. Twenty others, such as California, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, also permit parents to give personal or philosophical reasons. Mississippi and West Virginia allow exemptions only for medical reasons.
Many parents showed up, scared from the legal letters, to have their children re-immunized. They were upset that their children had already been vaccinated but complained that the school had misplaced the records.
There was also concern that the “vaccine round-up” obliterated informed consent and parental rights. Barbara Loe Fisher, president and cofounder of the National Vaccine Information Center was specifically concerned that the parents were not given any information on how to monitor their children for adverse reactions.
The round-up Saturday still left many students un-vaccinated leaving those parents in violation of the law.
What’s next? Prince George’s State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey couldn’t say Saturday whether he would prosecute parents who fail to comply.
“We have to sit down with school and health services,” he said. “We haven’t ruled anything out. We need to figure out where we stand.”
Veg Lawyer is following this and will post as updates occur.
To see more on this story, you may check out The Associated Press, Fox News, or The Christian Science Monitor.
[...] I did, however, find some information relating back to the story on mandatory vaccinations in Maryland, which you may view here. [...]
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