Trouble enforcing vaccination suspensions
Some parents refused to pick up students from school, others berated teachers and staff
Some parents across the region are refusing to pick up their children from school after nearly 3,000 elementary students were suspended on Wednesday for out-of-date vaccination records.
Teachers and staff in several Catholic schools have also reported being berated and harassed by parents who question the legitimacy of the suspensions, which haven’t been enforced since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Immunization of School Pupils Act authorizes public health departments to issue school suspension orders, which schools are required by law to enforce.
The act requires all elementary and secondary school students to have proof of vaccination for diphtheria, polio, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chickenpox) and meningitis.
Records of these vaccinations or a valid exemption must be on file with public health.
This is the first time since the beginning of the pandemic the measure has been enforced. In 2019, Public Health issued more than 1,000 suspensions.
“We understand that this may be a stressful time for families, and we urge everyone to exercise courtesy and lead with kindness when speaking with office and school staff,” says a memo sent out by the Waterloo Catholic District School Board on Wednesday afternoon.
“Our team is doing their utmost to accommodate the needs of students while adhering to the requirements set out by Public Health and in legislation.”
Region of Waterloo Public Health gave a deadline of March 26 for students to report updated vaccination records. On Wednesday, 2,969 students were suspended, but many showed up at school anyway.
Students enrolled in virtual classes with outdated records at the Catholic board were also suspended, though they are expected to be allowed to return to the virtual classroom on Thursday.
“We suspend all students who have out-of-date records according to the Immunization of School Pupils Act, which does not specify dif
ferences for virtual versus inperson learners,” said David Aoki, the region’s director of infectious diseases and chief nursing officer.
“Once suspension occurs we work with the school boards to support their enforcement of the suspension.”
Parents were given months of notice before the suspensions were issued, with close to 28,000 students identified as having out-of-date records back in November.
As of last week, that number had dropped to 6,000, with nearly half either getting their shots, or providing documentation they were scheduled to get them, before the start of school on Wednesday.
About 1,000 of the suspended students attend the Catholic board, and about 1,800 are enrolled at the Waterloo Region District School Board.
Some suspended students did arrive at public school classrooms on Wednesday, said board spokesperson Ross Howey. He said most families have been “respectful” in working with the schools to pick them up.
During the suspensions, students will be able to use virtual learning resources.
Howey said he expects the number of student suspensions to drop in the coming weeks as more choose to update their vaccines.
“We have made remarkable progress from the original 27,567 immunization notices we sent to parents in November and December 2023,” said Dr. Hsiu-Li Wang, medical officer of health, in a release Wednesday.
“Since that time, we have resolved more than 24,500 outdated vaccination records, providing students with valuable protection against these serious and preventable diseases.”
While the overwhelming majority of parents get their children vaccinated, the tripling of suspensions compared to 2019 is very concerning, said Craig Janes, director of the University of Waterloo School of Public Health.
He blamed the increase of unvaccinated students on “pandemic-era exhaustion, coupled with rampant misinformation via social media and irresponsible politicization of the most basic, and most effective, tool in the public health arsenal,” he said.
Wealthy countries like Canada have lost their collective memory of the horrors of polio, and many people mistakenly perceive diseases like measles not to be that serious, Janes said.
“It breaks my heart, really. I work mainly in global health, and where I work in rural Zambia, mothers will walk for many hours to health posts to make sure their children are vaccinated because they know, from personal and familial experience, that it saves lives.
“The message is really quite simple: protect your children and protect the community,” he said.