WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Prince George’s County officials are still holding out the threat of jail and fines for parents of more than 900 public school children who are still aren’t up to date on county-mandated vaccinations — but so far authorities haven’t filed any criminal charges.

County authorities had originally set Saturday as the deadline for parents of unvaccinated children to comply or be subject to arrest.

But now officials are saying that it will be at least after the long Thanksgiving weekend — and maybe weeks more — before their crackdown begins.

“Our goal is to get all of these kids in classes safely without putting their parents in jail,” state’s attorney spokesman Ramon Korionoff said Monday.

After a free daylong clinic held Saturday at the county courthouse in Upper Marlboro, 939 children remained out of compliance with their immunizations Monday, either because they did not have all the shots required under state law or because their records had not been updated with the county.

“We are going through our records from the weekend and updating them and will be preparing information for the state’s attorney,” schools spokesman John White said Monday.

The school system is working on developing a list of noncompliant children to turn over to the courts within the next several days, White said, though he did not know exactly when it would be ready.

After State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey’s office has the list, officials will screen each case to determine whether parents were negligent or whether other factors prevented them from immunizing their children, Korionoff said.

He said he expected the review could take up to two weeks.

No parents had been charged or summoned as of Monday, he said.

Ivey announced last week that parents of up to as many as 2,300 children could face fines of up to $50 per day or 10 days in jail for failing to fully immunize their children. Thousands of those children had been barred from attending school for weeks after missing a Sept. 30 immunization deadline.

By the end of last week after Ivey’s announcement, 1,111 children remained out of compliance. Of those, 172 turned out Saturday and are now up to date, White said.

“We still have some work but it was definitely a success,” White said of the clinic.

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com

Comments from Examiner Readers

9:22 AM MST on Mon., Dec. 3, 2007 re: "State attorney gets names of vaccine-dodging parents"

Mike Licht said:
>>Re: State attorney gets names of vaccine-dodging parents<< PG has a medical records problem, not an immunization problem. Is there not a childhood immunization registry? The federal government has grants for these and the software is free.

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11:11 AM MST on Tue., Nov. 20, 2007 re: "Parents of unvaccinated kids face fines"

BostonRay said:
When I was a child and came down with the measles/mumps/chickenpox it was nothing to run scared about. In fact, the other mothers in the neighborhood used to send in their kids to play with me so everyone would come down with the same thing and everyone would get over it at once. It was, and is, a normal rite of growing up and it was how you built immunity to many diseases. It was common sense. No one cried EPIDEMIC because there was no epidemic. Public health, in order to advance their power, now cries epidemic over everything. Isolated local episodes are now claimed as epidemics and you need public health to save you - it's a croc and a lie.

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10:06 AM MST on Tue., Nov. 20, 2007 re: "Parents of unvaccinated kids face fines"

Provocatuer said:
May an epidemic of measles, mumps or something worse would arouse us from our smug attitudes. It's not impossible with all these undocumented (read not medically cleared) in the country. Go ahead, talk trash. You tune may be different if one of yours gets sick.

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8:56 AM MST on Tue., Nov. 20, 2007 re: "Parents of unvaccinated kids face fines"

BostonRay said:
This is the pharmaceutical industry utilizing the legal system to force their product on the public for monetary gain. They have perfected this ruse of using the false claim of 'public health' initially through smoking bans in order to reap huge profits from smoking cessation products. Having been so successful at using government and it's easily manipulated educational system to advance their mercantile profit agenda, they are now getting courts to force parents out of the control of their own children. This is what happens when they use the phrase "it's for the children".

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7:33 AM MST on Tue., Nov. 20, 2007 re: "Parents of unvaccinated kids face fines"

Examiner Reader said:
So the "Government" says "you HAVE to let us inject your child with whatever we may put in that vile or go to jail". Now, just what all could the "Government" put in that vile? Just how do you know what your child is really getting?

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5:49 AM MST on Tue., Nov. 20, 2007 re: "Parents of unvaccinated kids face fines"

G said:
Give them a break, they probably don't remember what kids are theirs.

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