School district responds to social media claims about vaccinations
School district says it will not vaccinate children without parental consent
– Paso Robles Joint Unified School District Coordinator of Health Services Ashley Aiello sent out the following notice in response to recent claims made on social media about vaccinations:
Dear parents and guardians,
I want to address alarming rumors that have surfaced on social media. A post that is being shared throughout California states that schools can and will vaccinate students against COVID-19 under the umbrella of Emergency Care. I want to explicitly state this is incorrect information.
The misinformation of the social media post appears to combine two separate policies creating broad concern with parents throughout the state. Educational Code (49403) does state that school districts can hold vaccination clinics on campus and school staff can assist with vaccinations if parents provide written consent. PRJUSD does provide vaccination clinics after school and requires that parents are physically present.
Each parent that enrolls their child in PRJUSD is asked to give the school permission to “apply first aid, medical care, or secure transport by ambulance for my student.” This language is intended to ensure prompt response and care for children in the event of an unanticipated injury or incident. This language does not give the district authorization to immunize students without parent specific written permission. The district would never attempt to use tactics to mislead parents nor claim parental permission that was not specifically intended for that purpose.
School districts have not received official guidance regarding the COVID-19 vaccination mandate. PRJUSD will not implement a vaccine mandate before the state required due date which will likely be July of 2022.
Thank you,
Ashley Aiello, RN
Coordinator of Health Services
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