Kids: 'Needle' your parents

Spotsylvania school administrators concerned about absence of immunization records of rising sixth-graders

Date published: 8/8/2009

By PAMELA GOULD

Rising sixth-graders, school is still a few weeks off, but it's time for a civics lesson and an opportunity to practice communicating with your parents.

Spotsylvania County school officials are concerned that many of you--more than 70 percent of the county's 1,839 sixth-graders--haven't yet gotten your booster tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine, known as a Tdap booster.

Here's the civics lesson: The Virginia General Assembly passed a law in 2006 that requires all sixth-graders to get the shot before they start the school year.

In other words: no shot, no school.

There is an exception. If you got a tetanus toxoid-containing vaccine within the last five years, you're OK, said School Superintendent Jerry Hill.

By now, your parents or guardians should have received a letter from the superintendent explaining this requirement and even telling them how to get you this shot for free.

They also should have received voice-mail reminders.

The Spotsylvania County Health Department is offering free shots on Mondays from 8 a.m. until noon at the Holbert Building, 9104 Courthouse Road. You don't need an appointment, but you have only two Mondays left before school starts Aug. 24.

Spotsylvania sixth-graders aren't the only ones caught dawdling.

As of this week, only 50 of the 223 rising sixth-graders in Fredericksburg had submitted documentation showing they had gotten the shot.

But students at Fredericksburg's Walker-Grant Middle School have more time. Students in the city, Stafford, Caroline, King George and Westmoreland counties don't start classes until Sept. 8.

Walker-Grant secretary Renee Embrey said parents routinely show up the last few weeks before school with the paperwork.

Culpeper and Orange public schools open Aug. 24, as Spotsylvania does.

Sixth-graders, here's your chance to open a friendly dialogue with your parents and to demonstrate your growing maturity.

Check to see if they have scheduled an appointment for you to get the shot, if you haven't gotten it already.

Use this as an opportunity to see if you might make a good lawyer. Cite the statute for them, Code of Virginia 32.146.

The conversation could turn out to be good for your health, your education and maybe even your career.

Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972
Email: pgould@freelancestar.com

WHAT THE TDAP VACCINE PREVENTS The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers the following information on tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. Diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis are caused by bacteria. Diphtheria and pertussis are spread from person to person. Tetanus enters the body through cuts or wounds. Tetanus, also known as lockjaw, causes painful tightening of the muscles, usually all over the body. It can lead to "locking" of the jaw, preventing someone from opening his mouth or swallowing. Tetanus leads to death in up to two of 10 cases. Diphtheria causes a thick covering in the back of the throat. It can lead to breathing problems, paralysis, heart failure and even death. Pertussis, or whooping cough, causes coughing spells so intense that it's hard for infants to eat, drink or breathe. Spells can last for weeks. It can lead to pneumonia, seizures, brain damage and death. cdc.gov/vaccines

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Date published: 8/8/2009