Deborah Anderson

I wasn’t always concerned with vaccine requirements for school attendance. In fact my first born child had all the necessary shots come school age, or so I thought. While receiving speech language services at the pre school age in our town’s school system I received a phone call that could only be labeled as demeaning and aggressive by the school nurse from that particular school. I was surprised as I told her I thought he was fully caught up and “he only attends the school for one half hour a week, and only engages one on one with the speech therapist”. She proclaimed that he NEEDED a heb B shot or else he would no longer be allowed to receive services. This was shocking to me as he attended one on one servicing with an adult, no other children. I spoke with my pediatrician who reviewed his file and assured me that he was medically fine and she even wrote a letter stating this. But the school nurse wouldn’t budge and continued to threaten his ability to enter the school. I then contacted the office of NH DHHS nurse who informed me that back when in 2015 when my son was 6 months old the nurse accidentally gave him his hep b shot 3 days too early. Therefore nullifying it on his immunization record with the state and subsequently the school system. She said he would have to receive the shot again in order to rectify this, or else fill out a religious exemption form each year. I spoke with my child’s pediatrician who reviewed his chart and said that realistically the immunization would have been in his system and efficient and even offered to write a letter stating this. Together we agreed that the religious exemption was the biologically correct path to take for his health. This is an example of how out of touch it is to have these school required vaccine mandates. They, quite simply, do not work. They do not account for human error, even for those of use who do immunize our children. It interferes with the goal of providing care and education to our children. Would my child really not be eligible for special services due to an early given vaccine? Or is a child whose parents chose not to vaccinate not eligible simply because of their vaccination status? I think it is an unacceptable overreach particularly relating to offering children and fair and equal education. Consider making it an educated recommendation, and allowing room for medical freedom, personal or religious choice, or as in our case, professional error. It isn’t necessary to require medicine to educate our youth. Please keep our wonderful state Free. Thank you.