With 134 Gilroy High School students still needing to produce
immunization records proving they’ve received the whooping cough
shot, GHS’s library-turned-quarantine area was abuzz with frenzy
Thursday morning as nurses and staff sorted out the
”
chaos.
”
”
We actually need vaccinations for amnesia,
”
joked GHS Principal Marco Sanchez, commenting on myriad modes of
communication employed to notify parents of the state-mandated
booster: Take-home fliers. Web posts. Emails. Letters. Phone
messages. Cold calls. Full story
Gilroy – With 134 Gilroy High School students still needing to produce immunization records proving they’ve received the whooping cough shot, GHS’s library-turned-quarantine area was abuzz with frenzy Thursday morning as nurses and staff sorted out the “chaos.”
“We actually need vaccinations for amnesia,” joked GHS Principal Marco Sanchez, commenting on myriad modes of communication employed to notify parents of the state-mandated booster: Take-home fliers. Web posts. Emails. Letters. Phone messages. Cold calls.
The new California legislation took effect July 1, and requires all California middle and high school students (7th- through 12th-grade) to get vaccinated against pertussis, or whooping cough, by the beginning of the 2011-2012 school year. This deadline was extended July 14 with the passing of Senate Bill 614, which granted schools an extra 30 days after classes began to verify Tdap records.
GHS Assistant Principal Stefani Garino explained students have a three-day grace period beginning Thursday to get vaccinated or turn in their paperwork. Students cannot attend school without the vaccination, but will not be marked absent during the three-day grace period, she explained.
With Sept. 22 marking Tdap D-day, non-immunized students were pulled from class and sent to the library, where they would wait for parents to fax or hand-deliver their vaccine records – or pick them up and drive them to personal physicians, nearby clinics, Walgreens or Rite Aid to receive the booster. Students who could not get a hold of parents resolved to wait it out in the library.
Principal Sanchez, who said the count was down to 50 as of 2 p.m., explained teachers were instructed to make sure students did not leave class without “something in their hands” to work on.
“We want to support learning and student achievement under any circumstances,” he reiterated. “These are not ideal circumstances, but we try and make the best of it.”
Nine days ago, 782 of 4,800 students in four Gilroy high schools and three junior high schools were still in the weeds. Wednesday’s total count shrank from 600 to 300 overall by Thursday morning according to Eileen Obata, GUSD’s nurse who arrived at GHS slightly scatter-brained following an early morning visit to Mt. Madonna Continuation High School.
The current tally for Mt. Madonna was 29, “but most didn’t even come to school,” Obata said.
Squeezing her eyes shut as she tried to conjure Thursday morning’s count at GHS (it was at 145), an understandably preoccupied Obata said, “let me think … my brain is full of Tdap right now.”
Rising to address the displaced body of students sitting at tables or meandering around the library as they dialed home on cell phones, Garino bellowed, “quit complaining! You’ve known about this for weeks. Do not sit there and cause a drama scene.”
Students’ excuses consisted largely of either (1) they received the Tdap and just forgot to turn in the paperwork, (2) they thought their paperwork was squared away, when in fact, it wasn’t, (3) they ignored the notices because they thought they had received the vaccination already, or (4) they did not want to get the Tdap because “the shot is horrible. It hurts so bad. Your arm goes dead. They don’t even do it gentle,” said sophomore Larissa Priarollo, 15. “They stab you.”
“The needle is big,” agreed sophomore Joseph Antal, 15, who said he wasn’t happy or bummed, just “in the middle,” when asked how he felt about missing biology.
Junior Luis Casillas, 17, likened the experience to having a dart thrown at him.
“You’re making it seem like it’s bloody murder, or something,” countered Junior Davey Oakey, 16, who sat at the same table as Priarollo. “It’s just a shot.”
None of the students said their parents were particularly thrilled with dropping everything to pick up their child or deliver immunization papers.
“She’s mad,” said Abigail Jimenez, 17, of her mother who goes to school in Morgan Hill and works in San Jose.
Junior Mikayla Kardash, 16, who was missing her photography class, said “I didn’t know today was the deadline, or else I would have brought the paperwork.”
Kardash said her mom “thought I was in trouble … today was her day off. Thank God.”
With a perplexed expression, Senior Madelline Keaton, 17, said, “I have no idea why I’m here. It’s kind of annoying.”
She called home and passed her cell phone off to GHS physical education teacher Jack Daley, who relayed the situation to Keaton’s grandma.
The Tdap shot is a response to a large growth in pertussis cases in the past few years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most recent numbers show more than 17,000 cases of whooping cough were reported throughout the country in 2009, affecting mostly infants and teens. Symptoms include a runny nose, low-grade fever and rapid deep coughs that are followed by a high-pitched “whoop,” according to the CDC. The disease can lead to death if untreated because of exhaustion and the inability to breathe normally.
“It’s just horrible. It chokes you. It’s like you can’t breathe,” said Obata, a GUSD nurse of 15 years.
So far this year, she said GUSD has already experienced two cases of whooping cough – with a third pending.
The district began notifying parents in Fall 2010, mailing letters home in October, February and May, followed by a fourth sent out Sept. 9, according to Obata. GUSD also posted a notice on its website, in addition to initiating three rounds of automated calls.
“Sometimes it takes excluding their child to get the parents to wake up and say, ‘wow, they really need this,” said Obata. “(The parents) get mad at this, but this is a public health law.”
Where to get whooping cough vaccinations (“Tdap” booster)
– Gardner South County Health Center: 7526 Monterey St. 846-6755
– School Health Clinic of Santa Clara County, Gilroy neighborhood health clinic: 7861 Murray Ave. 842-1017
– Walgreens: 770 First St. 847-0983. Cost is $63.99 without insurance
– Rite Aid: 360 E.10th St. 848-2328. Cost is $57.99 without insurance
All 7th- through 12th-grade students must provide verification of a Tdap booster, or whooping cough vaccination, by Thursday
