A Maple Ridge mother has collected more than 1,200 names for a petition urging B.C. Premier John Horgan to make kids’ vaccinations a condition of school enrolment.
Katie Clunn administers a Facebook group Pro Vaccines in B.C., and started the change.org petition, titled Mandatory Vaccines in B.C., that is being organized under the name Katie Mary.
She said on the petition that vaccine records are currently not needed for parents to enrol their kids in school and that fewer than 25 per cent of Metro Vancouver schools have vaccination rates of more than 90 per cent.
Clunn tried to get the provincial government to make vaccinations compulsory with a petition in 2015, but nothing came of it.
“It’s time to get back to eradicating these preventable diseases and protecting our province,” she said.
She’s asking the premier to require vaccinations as a requirement of enrolment, with the exception of medical reasons.
A second case of measles has been found in Vancouver in February, with the second case acquired locally and the first case acquired abroad.
A measles outbreak in Washington State and Oregon this winter has sickened 56 people so far.
Fraser Health held a free immunization clinic in September at Maple Ridge secondary after a student showed up with measles on the first day of school.
During that incident, students had to get immunized or they weren’t allowed back at the school until after a period of time had elapsed.
The Maple Ridge – Pitt Meadows School District has confirmed that vaccines are not mandatory in order to enrol in school.
