Burlington, News

BASD tries to get ahead of possible measles cases

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Editor

As the first suspected cases of measles were publicized last week, the Burlington Area School District took a proactive step in dealing with any possible outbreak.

Rose Dolatowski, the director of health services for BASD, sent out a letter to all parents Friday. It advised parents that if a case was confirmed in the district, students with one or zero of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccination would be excluded from school for at least two weeks.

“We have a list of all of the kids in our district who are under-immunized,” Dolatowski said Tuesday. “Those kids who have a possible exposure must be excluded from school for at least two weeks.”

The two-week period is just a starting point. If cases begin to spread within the district, students will be held out longer.

Those students are un- or under-vaccinated for a variety of reasons. Dolatowski said allergies to the vaccine, diseases that prevent getting the vaccine or those suffering from cancer and undergoing chemotherapy are also included with those whose parents choose not to vaccinate their children.

“They are the ones who bring it, and they are at risk of being the ones who get it,” Dolatowski explained. “It’s a safety measure for them.”

It’s not just the children, though. Staff members are at risk as well. Dolatowski said there are teachers who are suffering from auto-immune disorders, have gone through cancer or are going through chemotherapy, or have had allergic reactions to the vaccine.

If those staff members are exposed, they will have to be excluded as well.

It’s a frustrating situation for Dolatowski, who has to deal with all of the aforementioned issues within the district. She also pointed out that the study tying autism to vaccinations has been disproven, and she wants everyone to remain healthy.

“We want to prevent disease at all cost,” Dolatowski said. “I fear people take these diseases lightly because they are termed ‘childhood diseases.’

“I think that’s a bad term,” she added. “They are very severe.”

9 Comments

  1. The school district should look into the legality of this decision. It violates FERPA and HIPAA regulations. While parents consent to supplying the school with medical records such as immunization records, that does not give the district the right to make these records publicly known (informing teachers, teachers aides, counselors, school volunteers, bus companies, truancy officials, secretaries, the list goes on, that a child will be absent for an extended period of time).
    Nor does the district have the right to discriminate against students who are not vaccinated. Not allowing a child to attend school because of a medical condition is discrimination(being vaccinated is considered a condition or state that an inidividual has or is in). Parents of children who choose to not vaccinate their children based on religious, social, or moral reasons know full well what they are choosing and the risk they are taking. It is presumptuous to think or state that these people are uninformed or treat these diseases as trivial.
    It is the individuals who physically cannot have vaccinations due to other medical conditions that need to be protected while they are in school. This can happen in 2 ways. First the parents are given the choice, and not mandated, to keep their kids home. Second, if these individuals do choose to attend school, the district should provide reasonable protective gear for those people. That would range from a N95 flat fold respirator (mask) to a full Communicable Disease Protection Kit which includes mask, suit, foot coverings and gloves. These items are not expensive. A box of folding respirators, 20 of them, is $20 and each complete suit is $10.
    There is a line that the district must not cross. Protecting the student body is on the side of helpful, discriminating against individuals because of personal health choices is another hurtful.

  2. Gag me. Seriously! People who are vaccinated become secondary carriers of these illnesses and THEY spread it. Please do some actual research on vaccines.

    • Do my research … where? At Natural News, or Organic Lifestyle, or listen to Andrew Wakefield, whose study has been labeled an “elaborate fraud”? THAT research says vaccines are dangerous. Meanwhile, the CDC and most reputable sources – the other half of the research that anti-vaxxers don’t want anyone listening to, or label “big government coverup” – say vaccines are fine, and have been for years.

      The current measles outbreak can be tied to un-vaccinated children. NOT vaccinated ones. Explain to me, PLEASE, how diseases like measles and mumps were virtually GONE until recently – which also coincides with the rapid rise of the anti-vaccination movement. Educate me, please, how I’ve developed normally in spite of having all my vaccines – and how all of my friends are normal, too, if these vaccines are so dangerous.

      Also, please educate yourself – from real news and reliable resources – how diseases are spread and what secondary carriers/secondary diseases are. All I did was google it, and it

  3. Someone clearly does not understand how vaccines work. You’re obviously not familiar with Hitchens’s razor. That which can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.

    I have done plenty of research on vaccines. I have read from numerous, reliable, verified medical resources, and I have studied how they work. Yes, when a live vaccine is used, which is the case for a handful of them, there is a minor risk of exposure to those who are immunocompromised. A normal healthy person is NOT immunocompromised, and therefore is at no risk.

    And that risk is only for the first few days of the vaccine. After that, it’s gone. The true carriers are the people who refuse to get vaccinated, when there is utterly no medical reason for them not to do so.

    You made your claims without evidence, and as a result, no one has any obligation to refute your claims with evidence. Show me data from verified, peer-reviewed medical sources, and I’ll show you mine. Otherwise, you’re just a brainwashed idiot listening to false medical misinformation and setting aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.

  4. So Nikki, are you saying if a kid has a stomach virus they should be allowed to come to school? Is it discrimination to try and prevent an outbreak of a contagious sickness? Every school district I’ve ever worked in (I’m a teacher) requires a student to be fever free for 24 hours before they can return to school after an illness. Is that discrimination? Because TRUST me, not every parent really has their kid’s best interest in mind and there ARE parents who would send their kid to school sick for a variety of reasons.

    The district is trying to prevent an outbreak of a very dangerous disease. I have a six month old son who is not old enough to have his measles vaccine yet. And if kids who are almost assured of contracting the disease are allowed to be put in a situation where they have a higher risk of being exposed and therefore spreading the disease to their homes and to anyone that is in the same space as them within a two hour window (that’s how long the measles virus remains active in the air by the way) then an outbreak is unavoidable. If that happens then you are putting MY kid at risk and I couldn’t give a damn about what you think your medical rights are.

  5. If a child is visibly sick or has a contagious condition then the school has the right to send the child home and keep them home for a period of time. All parents agree to this policy when signing consent for their children to go to school.The group in question here are NOT sick, and may never become sick with the measles. I am not advocating for or against vaccines; I am stating that the school board does not have the right to publicly separate this group of people because of medical choices the parents have made. There were approx. 60,000 deaths from the flu last year in the US; 0 from measles.(as per CDC data) Does that mean that anyone who has not had a flu vaccination should not be allowed to attend school if someone….anyone, in the district has the flu? If the district is given the ability to waive medical rights over this, what does the future hold?

  6. Yes Nikki, more people have died from taking the MMR vaccine in the last ten years than have died from measles. The 2011 outbreak in N.Y. was started by a vaccinated person. As for Ms. Susanne, look at the insert given with the MMR vaccine and tell me if it is safe, or effective. What a joke. The vaccine companies are free from any liability due to injury from their products. The American people pay for any damages done by vaccines. Can you imagine if we gave car companies protection like that. Measles was on the decline before the vaccine was introduced. If your children are vaccinated and you believe vaccines are effective, than you have nothing to worry about. All people should have the right to make an educated decision for their families. Maybe Burlington needs to start teaching civics again. This is an obvious over reach.

  7. No one is forcing any parent to immunize their child. If a parent chooses not to do so then so be it. The article merely says if there is a breakout, unprotected children will be asked to stay home for a safe period of time. This is a serious illness. The question is not whether or not you vaccinate your children. The question is whether of not you want to protect your child (and others) from a serious communicable illness. Your district is taking action to keep kids safe. I see nothing wrong with that.