Don't mess with… Maryland?
If you were given a choice between having your child roll up their sleeve for a vaccination or risk going to jail, what would you do?
Many parents were recently faced with just such a choice. And no, it didn't happen in some foreign country, but right here in the U.S.
Last month, one state in our Union decided to take Orwellian measures in order to have its Will obeyed. More specifically, it was done by one of their county school systems. Prince George's County wasn't kidding around when it came to making sure students had their vaccinations.
Parents received a letter that summoned them to a courthouse on a Saturday morning. Their choice? Show proof of vaccination, have your child roll up their sleeve on the spot—or get sent to jail.
Many parents probably couldn't help but feel coerced by the threat of going to jail. Whatever the reason behind their children not having had their vaccination, whether it be for economic or religious reasons, many had probably never had any sort of legal situation that threatened them with jail.
But suddenly these parents found themselves faced with the threat that their children could be expelled from school, which would start the legal process. The parents would then be brought up on truancy charges. This would lead to them being ordered to jail for 10 days for their first offense, 30 days for the second.
In the case of this particular county's requirements, the standards included vaccinations for polio, mumps and the measles with some newer ones added in for hepatitis B and the chicken pox.
I found this disturbing because of the threat of jail being associated with a vaccine.
While vaccinations at gunpoint may be a long way off, I still find this an interesting way for the school system to handle this situation. The government is trying to keep you on your toes, but maybe should have been worrying about keeping itself on point: In many cases, the paperwork and vaccination proofs sent in by parents had been mislaid by this very same school system.
Good thing there's no penalty for being a bureaucracy.
