The good news: Students at the Berkeley Arts Magnet Elementary School were feeling pretty good about the upcoming state standardized exams.
The bad news: They've all got spots.
Somehow, death and religion have become involved:
A sudden outbreak two weeks ago has left six students home sick with the virus, as well as eight students barred from school for three weeks because of their refusal to accept the vaccine...And for good measure, the outbreak comes just as students are taking state standardized tests which can label schools as failing if they fail to test enough students...
It’s also been a trial for city Health Officer Dr. Poki Namkung. She is responsible for coordinating the school’s response, and has taken some heat from at least one parent for her stance that any child not vaccinated be kept out of school for the 21-day period that the virus takes to incubate. Many of the families refusing the vaccine say it violates their religion.
Nora Akino, whose daughter attends Berkeley Arts Magnet, questioned if the policy was intended to “force parents to vaccinate their children.” She said no doctor had ever urged the vaccine for her child, but said it seemed to her that now chickenpox had been redefined as a dangerous disease...
Health Officer Namkung counters that the virus has killed a “significant number of children” and that she is following standard public health procedures in dealing with the outbreak—which is defined by the state as more than five cases in one elementary school.
I thought kids had to have proof of vaccinations to enter public schools in the first place. Has that changed?
Posted by kswygert at May 11, 2004 02:06 PM