Mom Takes a Stand Against School Vaccine Rules

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A Michigan mom is speaking out about what she believes is an unfair vaccination policy at her son’s school, after he was told to stay home during an outbreak of chicken pox because he’s not been fully inoculated against the illness.

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"I’m not against vaccines. I’m not an anti-vaccine parent,” Sarah Donovan of Birmingham, who could not be reached by Yahoo Parenting, told the Hometown Life newspaper. But, she added, “I have the right not to vaccinate.” Her son Michael, 11, and her older daughter, Jane, are not fully vaccinated, as Sarah stopped the process when Jane developed autism as a toddler after receiving a round of shots. She has a medical exemption from vaccines for her two children, but when three students in Michael’s district came down with chicken pox Thursday, the school told unvaccinated and not-fully-vaccinated kids in the same classrooms as those infected to stay home during the illness’s full incubation period — and to not return to school until April 14.

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Sarah told the Detroit Free Press that she would send Michael to his Derby Middle School on Friday anyway, and did so, but was called by the school to come and pick him up just 30 minutes later. “I was so upset,” she told Hometown Life. “He’s an ‘A’ student. He loves school and he’s missing two quizzes today and it’s stressing him out.”

District spokeswoman Marcia Wilkinson told the newspaper that the exclusion policy comes from the Oakland County Health Division. Shane Bies, administrator of public health nursing services for the Oakland County Health Division, tells Yahoo Parenting that the exclusion policy is sometimes necessary in school settings, but that “we try to do that in an appropriate way, and depending on the disease and exact exposure, not every child without protection in a district would necessarily need to be excluded.” Instead, as the county did in the Birmingham case, officials work closely with schools to determine who was at the highest risk of exposure.  “It really can change on a case-by-case basis,” he says.

And indeed, the policy of excluding unvaccinated students with waivers from school during disease outbreaks is standard practice across the nation as a way to control the spread of illnesses; it’s usually clearly stated on forms that parents have to sign before receiving a waiver. That fine print was put into action in many states this year, including in parts of California, during the measles outbreak.

But Sarah believes the policy violates federal privacy laws, as keeping children home from school during outbreaks makes their vaccination status obvious to everyone. “I don’t like this bullying. I’m going to push back somewhat. I’m not a media person — I’m not. I like privacy. But I think it’s important for people to know the other side,” she told the Detroit Free Press. “It’s not right. It’s truly bullying. My son is being singled out and we’re made to feel like were bad parents because we’ve decided not to vaccinate anymore.” In June, two New York City families with unvaccinated kids and religious waivers sued the city for its policy of exempting their children from school during outbreaks, sometimes for a month at a time; but a federal judge upheld the city’s policy.

Still, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a child who is vaccinated can fail to develop immunity 1 to 5 percent of the time. And that, notes vaccine-rights attorney Alan Phillips, is just one reason why he disagrees with the policy of excluding unvaccinated kids during outbreaks.

“The concept — that it’s more important for the state to protect its community rather than to protect an individual’s rights — is sound, but the policy is corrupt,” he tells Yahoo Parenting. “It ignores the fact of vaccinated kids who may not have immunity.” He agrees with Sarah in Michigan, noting, “I happen to believe [the exclusion policy] is not lawful, but a law is not officially unconstitutional until a court says so.” And besides the losing New York case, he says, “I don’t think it’s ever gone to court anywhere.”

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