1,428 Waterloo Region high school students suspended over out-of-date vaccination records
Nearly 1,500 Waterloo Region high school students have been suspended over out-of-date vaccination records.
"There's 1,428 students that are suspended as of this morning,” David Aoki, director of infectious diseases and chief nursing officer for the Region of Waterloo, said Wednesday. “We have clinics running, and we're hoping to reduce that number as quickly as possible.”
Provincial legislation requires all elementary and secondary school students to be vaccinated against diphtheria, polio, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chickenpox) and meningitis, unless they have a valid exemption. If not, students can be suspended for up to 20 days.
"This will be another thing that will happen again next year when we run this process. So it's better to even submit an exemption if your choice is not to vaccinate or submit the paperwork if you have it, because we don't want to have this recur next year," Aoki said.
When suspension orders were sent to families last month, 6,819 secondary school students had out-of-date records. Since then, the majority either updated their records, gotten vaccinated or provided an exemption. The remaining 1,428 were suspended on Wednesday.
"Delaying... increases the risk of disease. Should a disease pop up, then there's people that are potentially not protected," Aoki said.
Earlier this spring, 2,269 elementary school students were suspended for out-of-date vaccination records.
Aoki said the majority of them resolved the issue in the first week of suspension. He said only 59 elementary students ended up sitting out all 20 days.
According to Aoki, the number of students being suspended is higher than usual. He believes that’s because public health did not enforce vaccination requirements during the pandemic and there were fewer clinics.
"Because of the five-year delay of not doing this and not kind of getting people caught up, we're seeing about three times the number of what we saw. So this matches elementary. We know that it's a larger number than normal. But what we want to do is make sure we get caught up, not delay the process and stretch it out over a number of years. Then that way we expect next year to return to kind of a normal year," Aoki said.
Although students can only be suspended for 20 days, if they don’t update or provide exemptions, they can face the same suspensions each year of school until they are 18.
Clinics were available in schools but have now ended. Appointments can be booked through public health for students to get up to date. Clinics are available in Cambridge and Waterloo.
What to do if your child is suspended
- Book a vaccine appointment with public health
- If you have scheduled a vaccine appointment with your primary health care provider or public health, please report your upcoming appointment online.
- If the student has received the vaccine elsewhere, please report the vaccine record online.
- Once the region has processed your form, the student’s suspension will be resolved. Due to high volumes, it may take one to two business days to process submissions, the region said. Once resolved, you will receive an email and the student can return to school the following day.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING World No. 1 golfer charged with police officer assault before PGA Championship second round
World number one golfer Scottie Scheffler was arrested and charged with the assault of a police officer in what he called a 'chaotic situation' before being released in time to start his second round at the PGA Championship on Friday.
NEW What a wildfire survivor says she regrets not grabbing before leaving home
Carol Christian had 15 minutes to evacuate her home during the Fort McMurray wildfires in 2016. She ended up losing the house and everything inside. Now, she wants to share the lessons she learned.
LIVE @ 11:30 MT Four 1970s homicides linked to serial killer, Alberta Mounties to reveal Friday
A dead serial sexual offender and killer has been linked to four homicides in the 1970s in Alberta, RCMP say.
Newly mapped lost branch of the Nile could help solve long-standing pyramid mystery
Egypt’s Great Pyramid and other ancient monuments at Giza exist on an isolated strip of land at the edge of the Sahara Desert.
Ontario sees first measles death in more than a decade after young child dies
A young child has died of measles in Ontario, marking the first death in the province from the highly contagious virus in more than 10 years, a Public Health Ontario report confirms.
Think twice before sharing 'heartbreaking' social media posts, RCMP warn
Mounties in B.C. are urging people to think twice before sharing "heartbreaking posts" on social media.
One way Canadians are shrinking rising grocery bills
As the cost of food in Canada has risen, grocery shoppers are looking at ways to reduce their grocery bill, and more are choosing price over beauty, turning to companies that deliver so-called 'misfit' produce at a fraction of the cost.
'Another pair of eyes watching over me:' How a B.C. woman's guide dog saved her from drowning
A B.C. woman says her guide dog pulled her from a lake moments before she had a seizure, saving her life.
Vatican revamps norms to evaluate visions of Mary as it adapts to internet age and combats hoaxers
The Vatican on Friday radically reformed its process for evaluating alleged visions of the Virgin Mary, weeping statues and other seemingly supernatural phenomena, insisting on having the final say in whether the events are worthy of popular devotion.