State attorney gets names of vaccine-dodging parents
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As many as 900 public school students remained out of compliance heading into the weekend for either not having been vaccinated or failing to get all the shots they need, according to schools spokesman John White.
(Examiner file)
As many as 900 public school students remained out of compliance heading into the weekend for either not having been vaccinated or failing to get all the shots they need, according to schools spokesman John White.

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Promising to make good on threats that adults who fail to fully immunize their children could face jail time or fines, Prince George’s County education officials began giving the names of derelict parents to State Attorney Glenn Ivey’s office, schools spokesman John White said.

As many as 900 public school students remained out of compliance heading into the weekend for either not having been vaccinated or failing to get all the shots they need, White said.

“Numbers keep coming down, and we’re providing information packets to the courts on individual cases for further cases,” White said.

No parents have been arrested or fined yet, Ivey spokesman Ramon Korionoff said.

“We don’t want to put parents in jail, we want to put kids in school,” he said.

After months of frustration on the part of school leaders to get 2,300 schoolchildren who remained out of compliance on their vaccinations up to date, Ivey announced in mid-November that parents could face fines of up to $50 per day or 10 days in jail for failing to fully immunize them. Thousands of those children had been barred from attending school for weeks after missing a Sept. 30 immunization deadline.

About 170 schoolchildren and their parents attended a free daylong clinic held Nov. 17 at the county courthouse in Upper Marlboro. White said other children have come into compliance since then, but an exact figure was not expected to be available until today.

Korionoff said parents could be charged if they are found to be the cause of their child’s chronic truancy.

“We’re making a case-by-case determination,” Korionoff said. “We want to make sure that folks have their paperwork in order and don’t have any outstanding mitigating factors.”

cmabeus@dcexaminer.com


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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.

53 agree | 54 disagree
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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.

81 agree | 66 disagree
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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.

69 agree | 81 disagree
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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".

68 agree | 78 disagree
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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?

81 agree | 81 disagree
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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.

71 agree | 77 disagree
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