@romanigypsyeyes, I thought of lice also.
In this lady’s case, the only one who violated this child’s privacy was the mother, who allowed his vaccination status, as well as his photo, to be published for all the world to see.
Around here, though, when a kid is sent home with lice or something else, a letter is sent home with other students in the class, letting families know what’s going around (not every illness is reported). Some things we used to get letters for were chicken pox, lice, larger than usual number cases of flu, strep.
If three kids are absent in a class, and a letter has gone home about one of these, then it’s not difficult to figure one of those three is the contagious one, and with just a bit more information, kids figure it out real quickly. Whoever went home sick is going to tell one of their good friends about it in class, then the word spreads.
The worry over this kind of stigmatization only reinforces it. There should be no stigma with lice, HPV, etc. Anyone can get it. My adult daughter just got lice after avoiding it for her entire childhood. We have no idea if she picked it up during a clinical or riding a crowded train.
When we got bed bugs at my house after my husband brought one home from a hotel, I didn’t worry about stigma. Instead I told everyone I know how to avoid and prevent it from happening to them. A few people commented to me that they would be embarrassed to tell people. I didn’t let that bother me. To me it was an opportunity to educate people.
Let’s save the stigma for the stupid, ignorant people who refuse to vaccinate their kids. They are refusing to take control over something that they do, indeed, have control over. That kind of stigma I have no problem with.
D1 brought lice home from summer camp. What a beating.
http://news.yahoo.com/washington-state-school-district-removes-143-students-over-031037249.html
" A Washington state school district pulled 143 students who lacked documentation proving they had received required immunizations from classrooms on Monday, in a first-in-the-state clamp-down triggered by a recent measles epidemic.
The Spokane Public Schools, the state’s second-largest district, made the decision after a measles epidemic in which more than 150 people fell ill across the United States, and a whooping cough outbreak in the state’s eastern city.
“(The students) stay out of school until they show compliance,” district spokesman Kevin Morrison said. He said the district was the first in the state to take such action. "
They are still allowing people to file for exemptions, but about 500 kids in the district have no shots and no waiver.
Those kids should never have been allowed in school. What good are the laws if they’re not going to enforce them?
@VeryHappy, that is the way most politicians work. They will state a problem and totally neglect to mention there is no enforcement of the current law. There answer is to pass a new law but no mention is made of enforcement.
@dadoftwingirls, I agree and understand that politicians get praise for introducing a bill, especially if that bill becomes law, and I agree and understand that little praise comes when government bureaucrats enforce an existing law – especially because insufficient funds are often allocated to do the enforcing. Nevertheless – sheesh!
I’ve been away from this thread for a while, but I looked quickly and didn’t see this. Forgive me if it’s already been mentioned.
The CA legislature, apparently woken up by the Disneyland measles outbreak earlier this year, took up a bill last week which would have eliminated ALL “personal” exemptions, which in CA includes religious exemptions. Unvaccinated children without a valid medical exemption would have to be educated at home, according to the bill. At a hearing of the education committee, hundreds of anti-vaxxers showed up and cowed the legislators into reconsidering. But (yay) they came back yesterday with an amended bill which only changes the definition of home schooling to include groups of home schoolers, and to allow independent study through the public schools for unvaccinated kids. They stood firm on not allowing philosophical non-vaxxers to send their kids into the big pool.
Yippee! Now they just need to pass the bill into law.
That’s true, and the know-nothings have vowed to continue the fight.
And there’s this:
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/22/health/mmr-vaccine-autism-study/
Of course they studied 95,000 children but somehow the 7 or 8 children studied by Wakefield (or whatever his name is) carry more weight…
Those are some things CA homeschoolers were probably wanting, so this may pit homeschoolers vs. antivaxxers.
Relevant xkcd: http://xkcd.com/1520/
It’s passed the CA senate, let’s hope it goes all the way!
The comments to that article are just amazing to me.
No one will be “forced” to inject their child with anything as a result of this bill. Those who refuse to vaccinate their children will simply have to make other arrangements to educate their children. Their rights to make a “choice” remain unaltered, but that seems to have escaped many.
It is interesting to read the comments. People don’t want the government telling them how to raise their children and yet they want to send them to public school. Hmmmmmm . . .
Wait @Nrdsb4 - you mean we won’t all be forced to inject ourselves with “fetal cells”? Are you sure?
It’s just that they don’t like being forced to live with the consequences of their “choice.” They like the convenience and lack of cost associated with sending their little germ factories to public school. Home schooling is a huge commitment of time, energy and money, and as it turns out, they don’t want THAT!