Immunization records still show non-compliance

Sophia Comas, Online Editor-in-Chief

After the Dec. 2 deadline set by the school district for all students to have updated vaccination records, Manhattan High is still working toward following through on compliance of the meningitis vaccine. 

According to school nurse Robin Mall, by the morning of the deadline, 161 students were still non-compliant. However, after searching the records of providers who log them into a website called WebIz.com, she and office aide Pam Stokes reduced that number to 68.

“It’s a tedious process going one by one,” Mall said. “It’s a very time-consuming process.”

In addition to finding individual students over the web, Mall and other secretaries within the school used the accumulated research to contact each one so Mall to talk to them directly, despite having already contacted parents and students through mail and individual reminders. 

While no students have been affected by the deadline yet, both Mall and school administrators want them to know that eventually the exclusion will be enforced should students still remain non-compliant. 

“It allows us to educate while bringing everybody else up to speed,” Dorst said. “Then it’s an education piece… I think that’s where we definitely come in and say ‘this is why we have the policy.’”

As of now, the number of students who have yet to become inoculated is decreasing. However, within the school district, MHS is the only school that is not 100% compliant. Mall and the rest of the administration hope to change that before the end of the semester without having to exclude anyone from class.

“My goal is not to exclude anybody,” Mall said. “Yes, I want people to be in school, but I want them to get their immunizations… and we’re doing everything we can to not do that.”