LI school district's vaccine ultimatum

BY JOHN HILDEBRAND
January 5, 2008 - Originally Published in Newsday

The South Country School District has notified more than a quarter of its sixth-graders - about 100 youngsters in all - that they eventually will be barred from classes unless they obtain immunizations newly required by the state.

School officials expect many of these students to be vaccinated Monday, during a scheduled visit by a mobile van from the Suffolk County Health Department. [CORRECTION: Suffolk County Health Department nurses used their own vehicles when providing vaccinations Monday to students in the South Country school district. Based on incorrect information supplied by the district, a story Saturday said the Health Department would supply a mobile van for the effort. (A15 NS 1/9/82008)] The booster shots are for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, better known as whooping cough.

Representatives of a group opposed to mandatory immunizations have denounced the school's warning as heavy-handed. But district authorities predict that few, if any, students actually will be banned from classes, adding that there are no immediate plans to do so, and that alternative arrangements will be made for any youngsters eventually suspended.

"By the end of Monday, I figure we're going to have pretty good compliance," said Susan Agruso, superintendent of the South Country district. "We recognize that at some point, we have to say, 'You can't come.' But if we reach this point, we'll give them home instruction."

The push for immunizations, which is also taking place at many other schools statewide, was prompted by a change in state health regulations that took effect Sept. 1. The rules change requires sixth-graders to get the so-called Tdap booster shots when they reach age 11.

The additional vaccination - a recommendation of federal health authorities - is aimed mainly at curbing a recent nationwide increase in cases of whooping cough, which is potentially deadly for infants. Because the inoculation requirement is new, state health officials say it is not uncommon for school nurses to find, in checking student records, that many do not yet have the booster shots.

Parents can obtain exemptions for their children, either on religious grounds or for medical reasons.

Since last summer, South Country has dispatched three letters to local families, advising of the new requirement. The latest letter, which went out Nov. 14, included an underlined warning that students "who do not submit proof of vaccination before December 7, 2007, will be excluded from school until the requirements are filled."

One regional family advocate, John Gilmore, criticized the district's handling of the situation, saying, "I don't think suspension of students in this case is really called for."

Gilmore is executive director of Autism United, a Hicksville-based group that lobbies for students with disabilities, and also a board member of a national group known as A-CHAMP, which opposes mandatory inoculations. Some parents worry that mercury-based preservatives formerly used in some vaccines may have harmed children's health, though research discounts this.