New vaccinations requirement

A California law mandating student vaccinations took effect at the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year

California Governor Jerry Brown approved Senate Bill 277 on June 30, 2015, which strengthens school vaccine policy and ends the policy of allowing personal belief exemptions for current vaccines. Now, as the bill takes effect in 2016, some parents are concerned that their personal choice is being subverted.

SB 277 states that personal or faith-based exemptions from receiving legally mandated vaccines are no longer valid. Vaccines — including those for MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), tetanus, hepatitis B and chickenpox, among others — will be mandatory except in the case of a medically required exemption.

“[SB 277] did keep in medical-based exemptions for vaccinations, but not in the way it used to be,” Principal Kevin Buchanan said.

Before SB 277, a pediatrician would simply sign a document to authorize the student’s lack of immunization. Parents who disagree with vaccinations on religious, philosophical or moral grounds generally did not need to proceed with immunizations.

After a measles outbreak originating in Disneyland, the bill was introduced to prevent any future incidents.“The state legislature felt that the science was in on how vaccinations protected their kids, and they took the step of enacting this law,” Buchanan said. “As a kind of official, a credentialed official of this state, I have to follow the law.”

As a result, parents who do not vaccinate their children must turn to methods of homeschooling or private schools.

“If you don’t want to vaccinate on faith-based reasons,” Buchanan said, “public school is not going to be an option for you.”

But in general, Oak Park students have been adequately immunized against highly-infectious diseases.

“There’s general support in the community for immunizing our kids,” Director of Pupil Services Susan Roberts said.

Buchanan said that in some cases, however, home-schooled students or students attending private schools who transfer into OPUSD are not fully immunized.

“We communicated with [families of un-immunized children] and said, listen, our hands are tied. This is now a law, and it is very clear that if you want to attend a public school, these are the provisions now regarding vaccinations,” Buchanan said.

According to Buchanan, controversy over vaccinations in Oak Park is localized, rather than widespread.

“I wouldn’t call [any controversies] humongous. There is a certain sentiment out there, that vaccinations are harmful for whatever reason,” Buchanan said.

Even predating the new law, Oak Park had specific guidelines regarding certain vaccinations.

“A few years ago we had the pertussis requirement for whooping cough … everyone had to have the pertussis requirement,” said Buchanan.

Oak Park faced a small student outbreak of whooping cough within the high school during the summer of 2015.

“We’ve had sporadic notices from the public health department that there has been a pertussis [case] identified, but there hasn’t been a situation where there’s been an outbreak,” Housman said.

According to Buchanan, the California state legislature continues to hold a tight grasp on vaccines.

“When you receive state and federal funds [as Oak Park does],” Buchanan said, “you are agreeing, in essence, to abide by the state and federal regulations [regarding] that money. So, if we take state money, we say we’ll play by your rules.”In the end, state regulations will continue to enact mandatory immunization of students, unless a strictly medical diagnosis exempts individuals.

“It doesn’t matter how vigorously [people] argue, or whatever documentaries are made, it doesn’t have any impact on us,” Buchanan said.

Dissecting Senate Bill 277

SB 277, which added the new vaccination requirements, was introduced following a California measles outbreak in early 2015.

The bill, introduced by California Senators Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) and Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), was assessed by the Senate Committee on Health April 7, 2015 and the Senate Floor June 26, 2015. The bill passed at each step of the legislative process, with a 25-11 Senate vote and a 46-31 Assembly vote.

While children are generally required to be vaccinated under the law’s provisions, students can be excluded with a “written statement by a licensed physician” filed by a parent, guardian or emancipated minor. The statement must verify that such immunization “is not considered safe.” In this case, the physician must be specific concerning the child’s medical condition.

The new law only applies to currently mandated vaccines. As such, any new requirements introduced in the future can be waived with a personal belief exemption.

SB 277 also states that if a child has been at risk for exposure to one “of the specified communicable diseases,” that child should be “temporarily excluded” from their school until the risk has sufficiently subsided.

For easily preventable, but highly contagious diseases like measles, the bill states that “vaccination rates up to 95 percent are necessary to preserve herd immunity and prevent future outbreaks.”

The controversy

Much of the opposition to vaccinations came after allegations of sudden autism-spectrum disorder onset, as well as concerns over chemicals like mercury in vaccines.

But published research studies conducted by the CDC have debunked the occurrence of any major, widespread side effects appearing because of vaccinations.

According to Simi Valley Unified School District nurse Debbie Sandland, mental disorders develop during fetal development, and are primarily based upon genetic factors. Drugs such as vaccinations do not — in any way, shape or form — cause these abnormalities.

“Everybody is so different; the proteins and chromosomes and the genetic organisms created when the egg and the sperm ignite, [are] individual,” she said. “It makes you pretty or it makes you ugly or it makes you fat or tall or short.”

The same concept applies to learning disabilities, Sadland said. And in cases of physical abnormalities, once again they can be attributed to genetic predispositions.

Some Red Oak Elementary School parents were not quick to support the end of public belief exemptions, out of a respect for parent choice.

“I do feel like parents have a right to decide,” said a mother of three Red Oak students, who wished to remain anonymous. “[Parents] should have their own freedom of choice to choose what to do with their children.”

The California Chiropractic Association says that by restricting access to public schools, the state is unconstitutionally narrowing educational outlets to only homeschool or private school.

Opposing groups like this one do not want outbreaks like the one in Disneyland to “turn into a full-scale assault on civil and human rights in America,” Brian Stenzler, president of the CCA, wrote in a letter to Senators on the health committee.

One Red Oak mother, who also wished to remain anonymous, stressed the notion that public safety concerns are much more valid than a single parent’s religious choice on the matter.

“I personally want people to be vaccinated,” she said. “I think everyone should have a choice, but, at the same time, I think their choice should be vaccinating their children. I mean, it’s a bias, so to speak.”

District nurse Housman said that some parents do not vaccinate specifically against the flu because their children’s peers have already been protected.

“It’s sort of like an, ‘I don’t need to do it because you did’ mentality,’” Housman said.

SB 277’s bill analysis cites support from the California School Nurses Organization, due to reinforcing a “community immunity” effect. Another Red Oak mother of two children, 5 and 7 years old, who wished to remain anonymous, said she agreed about the effect’s importance.

“For the overall good of the community and for other children, I don’t want innocent children to get sick just because of a parent’s personal choice,” she said.

There has been a small change in personal belief exemption rates during kindergarten entry in California from years 2000 to 2015; the rate increased from under 1 percent to 2.54 percent of incoming children.

As more individuals opt out of vaccinations, “herd immunity” decreases in effectiveness.

But when specific incidents trigger public safety concerns, vaccination rates rise. According to district nurse JoAnn Housman, parents are especially inclined to vaccinate their children at the notice of a pertussis, measles, mumps or rubella resurgence.

Sidebar

A measles outbreak directly linked to the Disneyland amusement park in Anaheim, California occurred after a traveler visited in December 2015.

The outbreak affected 147 people, including 131 Californians. The source of the outbreak was never identified.

Many of the affected individuals were not immunized against measles due to conflicting personal beliefs or because many were too young to receive the vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that the measles virus found in the 2015 outbreak was identical to that from a large 2014 outbreak in the Philippines.

Measles, a highly contagious viral disease, causes an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year, according to the World Health Organization.

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The anti-vaccination movement originated after the British Vaccination Act of 1840, a law passed to require the vaccination of infants against the smallpox disease. Protests occurred after non-compliant parents were fined or put in prison for not vaccinating their children.

The first mandatory school vaccination requirement in the U.S. was enacted in the 1850s in order to prevent the spread of smallpox among Massachusetts students.

To appease anti-vaccination protestors in Britain, a conscientious objector exemption was added in 1898. The exemption allowed parents to opt out as long as parents understood the implications of their choice.