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By: David Deschesne

Editor/Publisher, Fort Fairfield Journal, October 24, 2007, p. 10

Public school nurses across Maine are either deliberately or unwittingly misleading parents about the requirements for their children to be vaccinated in order to attend public school.

In a letter to parents, Deb Raymond, RN, BSN and school nurse for S.A.D. #1 in Presque Isle states of Chicken Pox, “The State of Maine requires that all students who attend Public School must show proof of chicken pox.”

Raymond is referencing Maine State law found at the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 20-A, Section 6359, paragraph 3 which states: “No chief administrative officer may permit any student to be enrolled in or to attend school without a certificate of immunization for each disease or other acceptable evidence of required immunization or immunity against the disease...”

Where Raymond seems stop reading the law is at the word “disease” in the above law citation which continues with “...except as follows.” The law then goes on in paragraph A to allow for a physician’s written statement stating immunization of that student would be medically unadvisable; and paragraph B which allows parents to opt out of the vaccine program with a simple waiver for either religious or philosophical reasons.

With the contamination of the polio vaccine in the late 1950s with the potentially cancer-causing Simian Virus 40 (SV 40); the deliberate tainting of flu vaccines with a mercury-based additive; and reports of London, England vaccine manufacturer Chiron Corporation having their license suspended for vaccine safety issues in 2004, many parents are considering whether or not they should even take the chance with vaccines to begin with.

There is currently no method in place to guarantee the safety of every single individual vaccine, or its potential long term side-effects in every single individual human. Since the school system and the State would be liable for any damage caused by vaccines mandated by law, they have devised a waiver system as found in MRS 20-A Sec. 6359 3(B). The waiver allows the State to “indemnify” itself against lawsuits because they have allowed parents by law the opportunity to access a waiver, opt their children out of the vaccine requirements and still allow them to attend public school.

But, that waiver is not effectively promoted by schools in their communication to parents.

In the chickenpox letter sent home to Presque Isle students, Raymond attaches a form with yellow highlighting on every line item to be filled out except the line that states, “I wish to exempt my child from getting the chickenpox vaccine for the following reason...”

Nowhere in her communication to parents does Presque Isle’s school nurse make any mention of the religious/philosophical waiver allowed for in Maine law, causing the perception to be that of mandatory vaccines with no other option available.

The Maine Department of Education’s “School Health” manual, which is available online, does provide a model, or template, of a waiver for public school nurses to offer to parents who are concerned for the safety of their children to opt out of the immunization program. It is available on the internet at:  www.maine.gov/education/sh/exemptionform06.rtf

The exemption form may be copied onto school letterhead and offered to parents as an option to vaccination and simply states that their child may attend unless there is a disease outbreak, at which time the student will be required to stay home for the duration of the outbreak.

Nurse Raymond makes no indication of the potential dangers associated with vaccines and does not include waiver forms in her letters to parents regarding immunization requirements.