A Voice For Choice Releases A Statement As SB277 Is Referred To Single Assembly Committee And Bypasses Education and Judicial Scrutiny
Mt. View, CA (PRWEB) June 02, 2015 -- SB 277 (CA Legislature, bit.ly/1Q0P8OY) will require a state mandated vaccination schedule for children to attend public or private school. SB277 cleared three Senate policy committees: Health, Judiciary and Education but bypassed the Appropriations Committee (Sacramento Bee, May 11, 2015, bit.ly/1Gh9jU7). It passed the Senate floor 25-10 despite contentious hearings.
“We believe that this bill affects the education of children with Personal Belief Exemptions (PBEs) more than it will (the) affect public health of California.. It is critical that this bill is referred to the Assembly Education Committee. In its current form, it leaves so many questions unanswered, as to how it can work in conjunction with California’s current Education Code. If SB277 passes, the law will discriminate by denying a Free and Appropriate Public Education (guaranteed by federal and California law) to a subset of unvaccinated and partially vaccinated students, thereby segregating students with specific religious or personal medical beliefs citing 1954 Brown v. Board of Education, Supreme Court, 1.usa.gov/1LXYyUZ, which ruled that “Separate education facilities are inherently unequal." We understand that SB277 denies mainstream inclusion to English Learners & Special Ed students and we believe this qualifies as discrimination. There are also no provisions for legal entitlements of IEPs, under IDEA. SB277 provides no additional state funding and requires individual school districts to absorb loss of ADA and cost of providing services to students at home (Mercury News, May 5, 2015, bayareane.ws/1Jfc20M). The constitutionality of this law is under scrutiny and is unlikely to be addressed by the Health Committee. According to the CA Department of Public Health (2014-15, bit.ly/1I67pmS), only 2.54% of children entering kindergarten this year had a Personal Belief Exemption, down 19% from the previous year, which demonstrates that AB2109 (CA Legislature, 2009, bit.ly/1JkHjOl) (parents must be informed of the benefits and risks of vaccinations by their physician), implemented in 2014, is working. A Public Health crisis does not exist and therefore force mandating a state sponsored vaccination schedule, is an extreme measure that goes against the Nuremberg Code of Ethics. SB277 will eliminate Parental Rights to make informed medical decisions with respect to vaccinations for their children. Families will be forced to remove their children from public or private school if they do not secure a medical exemption or comply with the state mandated vaccine schedule that includes multivalent or combination doses recently introduced to market and under post-marketing surveillance. Many families with PBE’s choose to selectively vaccinate with a single dose of one vaccine at a time rather than refuse to vaccinate. A delayed schedule will no longer be an option under SB277 if a parent wishes to send their child to public or private school. If this bill passes the Assembly Health Committee, it must be referred to the Assembly Education Committee to address the numerous constitutional and legal questions that remain unanswered with respect to California’s current Education Code and our children’s inherent right to school,” Ms. Christina Hildebrand, A Voice For Choice, firmly states.
A Voice for Choice, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for people’s rights to be fully informed about the composition, quality, and short- and long-term health effects of food and pharmaceutical products.
Christina Hildebrand, A Voice For Choice, Inc., http://www.avoiceforchoice.org, +1 408-835-9353, [email protected]
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