# Calgary Catholic School Board refuses to offer HPV Vaccine to students **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 27, 2008, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421 "2008-09-27T00:44:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/21 "2008-09-27T03:00:24Z")
> [@TVeblen](#): > > Times have changed, **PunditLisa**. When I went through elementary school, in Cincinnati (ages ago, though), we were given polio vaccinations and were tested for tuberculosis as well. As was I. Teachers also routinely whacked kids on the ass if they misbehaved. Both seem distasteful to me now. Schools should focus on educating and leave medical decisions (and morality, etc) to the parents. Even though the school chose not to give blanket innoculates, certainly Canadian parents still have the option of doing it privately, no? If that’s the case, then I have to say, “Meh.” ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/22 "2008-09-27T03:06:07Z")
Parents have to sign slips for the child to get the shots done at school. Otherwise, they take them to the clinic or the doctor like when they did their pre-kindergarten shots, or they don’t get them at all (we have our anti vaxxers here too). If you need any in high school, I had my own choice as to whether I got them or not (can’t remember what it was now… may have been an outbreak of something as I did go get the meningitis during that outbreak and even got my MMR again of my own accord). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/23 "2008-09-27T03:11:35Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Well, we have another difference between the US and Canada then, because I fully expect the school system to regularly vaccinate children (as I was vaccinated, 35 or so years ago), and I consider this school board decision to be complete and utter bullshit. Maybe it varies from place to place in Canada; I never in my life got a vaccine at school. I got them all, all in my family doctor’s office. I don’t recall the subject even coming up at school. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/24 "2008-09-27T03:18:39Z")
> [@Ferret\_Herder](#): > > Do public schools in the US still do scoliosis testing? I remember we had that in public school in Wisconsin back in the 1970s/1980s. I can’t recall off the top of my head what other health-related testing might have been done. Thinking of that, I guess I can see the sense in why schools might have given vaccinations - especially if those were requirements for attendance. Public school in the mid-to-late 90’s, according to my memory and my mom’s: Scoliosis checks annually in fourth, fifth and sixth grade. Hearing and vision tests every year of elementary school. There was nothing in middle or high school, because logistics (1 nurse, over 1500 students) made it impossible. I know that in high school, if you had a specific medical condition (asthma, diabetes, whatever) your parents could give the nurse a permission form to administer certain drugs. If you didn’t have that, the nurse couldn’t give anything more than a bag of ice, heating pad, saltines, cough drops, or the opportunity to lie down until the next bell. If a student was found carrying any sort of medication on them, other than ‘emergency’ supplies for whatever condition, they could be suspended. I had a friend who was threatened with that, because she got caught taking an Advil. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![drpepper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@drpepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drpepper)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/25 "2008-09-27T03:30:59Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > How odd that a school would issue any vaccines to its students. Here in the good US of A, the school cannot even administer Tylenol without written consent from the parent AND his/her doctor. (A position which I believe is over-reaching and the unintended consequence of zero tolerance laws, but I digress.) I can’t even imagine the uproar if the school started doling out HPV Vaccines. > > My daughters are 16 and 14. During their most recent physicals both of their physicians broached the subject of HPV Vaccines with me. We agreed that the pros outweighed the cons and that they’d be given the 3 part vaccine in the upcoming months. That is how medical decisions involving minors should be made – as a joint decision by the parents, the physican and the child (if she’s mature enough). The school has no standing and should stay out of it altogether. Word. No one’s holding a gun to parents’ heads and _making them_ do anything. Stop bitching at them and do what you think is best for your kid if you don’t like it. Christ. If you’re so outraged that your kid’s school won’t do your bidding with regard to whatever particular health procedure you want them to have, here’s a newsflash: _go get them the shot yourselves_! (that is if, [_gasp!_] you can make time in your oh-so-important schedule to actually make a doctor’s appointment and, you know, actually _parent_) ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/26 "2008-09-27T03:41:28Z")
[QUOTE=PunditLisa] As was I. Teachers also routinely whacked kids on the ass if they misbehaved. Both seem distasteful to me now. Schools should focus on educating and leave medical decisions (and morality, etc) to the parents. [/QUOTE] ::shrugs:: I see pros and cons for both. It’s not all that cut and dried to me, mainly because not all kids are blessed with actively involved, concerned parents. I think a valid argument can be made that schools can legitimately help catch kids who might fall through all kinds of gaps. I don’t have a big philosophical problem with schools at least offering opportunities to parents that they might be unaware of otherwise. So, my trip down memory lane wasn’t an endorsement but it wasn’t a condemnation either. One salient fact, IMO, is that the situation under discussion happened in a parochial school. Bit different context from a public institution. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/27 "2008-09-27T03:52:29Z")
Question: do they provide the Hep-B vaccination for teens who weren’t immunized as infants? I’m just wondering if anyone cares that Hep-B is also a (primarily, on this continent) sexually transmitted disease, and yet we here in the US start giving that one to children just after birth. The little baby sluts. ---
**Author:** ![Mumio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@Mumio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mumio)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/28 "2008-09-27T03:52:29Z")
I’m not convinced that this shot is safe. My daughter won’t be getting Gardesil until I feel it’s something she must have. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/29 "2008-09-27T04:27:02Z")
> [@Mumio](#): > > I’m not convinced that this shot is safe. My daughter won’t be getting Gardesil until I feel it’s something she must have. I think you need to do more homework; there have been some millions of HPV vaccinations given, with an extremely low adverse reaction rate (less than 1%), as opposed to 80% of the general population carrying the human papilloma virus which causes about 99% of all cervical cancer. In a nutshell, if don’t get your daughter vaccinated, she most likely will get HPV and a good chance of cervical cancer, vs. an extremely small chance of adverse reaction. It’s your child, and your choice, but make an informed decision. ---
**Author:** ![Mumio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@Mumio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mumio)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/30 "2008-09-27T04:46:57Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > I think you need to do more homework; there have been some millions of HPV vaccinations given, with an extremely low adverse reaction rate (less than 1%), as opposed to 80% of the general population carrying the human papilloma virus which causes about 99% of all cervical cancer. In a nutshell, if don’t get your daughter vaccinated, she most likely will get HPV and a good chance of cervical cancer, vs. an extremely small chance of adverse reaction. It’s your child, and your choice, but make an informed decision. My concern lies with what may happen several years down the road. This vaccine has only been out a couple of years, way too soon in my mind to believe it’s safe. Luckily, I’m certain my daughter is not sexually active and won’t be for quite some time so I’ve got time to wait and see. I fully understand the implications about hpv as I’ve been treated surgically for it (17+ years ago) so I’m most definitely making an informed decision. I do think that a lot of people are making a decision to do this because they are being scared into it by all the hype surrounding this vaccine. Certainly works well for Merck though. ---
**Author:** ![Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dread_pirate_jimbo/32/3897_2.png) [@Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dread_Pirate_Jimbo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/31 "2008-09-27T04:53:05Z")
> [@TVeblen](#): > > \ One salient fact, IMO, is that the situation under discussion happened in a parochial school. Bit different context from a public institution. Actually, not so much. Up here in The Great White North, the public school system and the Catholic (or sometimes it’s called the “Separate”) school system are treated more or less as equals, with equal government funding and so forth. It is less a private parochial system as it is a public school for the massive Catholic population in Canada with forced attendance in religious studies in addition to the other standard curriculum. At least, that was my experience in the several jurisdictions around the country where I went to school. Someone please correct me if I’m off base on this! Bishop Henry tends to take a hard-line, old school stance on matters of Catholic morality, when it comes to Catholic system policy, and the school board tends to back him. As a Catholic (lapsed), I can respect that, right up to the point where his tenuous moral position is putting lives in danger. Forcing parents to go through the process of going to their GP (if they can find one in this stupid city) for the shots when there is already a tried-and-true process in place that parents still have final veto power over is a piss-poor decision, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/32 "2008-09-27T05:08:09Z")
> [@TVeblen](#): > > Times have changed, **PunditLisa**. When I went through elementary school, in Cincinnati (ages ago, though), we were given polio vaccinations and were tested for tuberculosis as well. Parents had to sign permission slips, though, because I remember hoping against hope my mother–a teacher, btw–would somehow forget to sign mine and I’d escape the dreaded needle. Long lines of little kids, some snivelling, some trying to act brave, all inching toward The Needle. The TB test, with stuff injected by a fine needle under the skin on your arm, was particularly scary. I stared obsessively at the little liquid bump for two days, willing it go down. > > I was _not_ committed to public health in grade school. > > Anyway, offering medical stuff through public schools wasn’t always so verboten. > > It was long enough ago that the school had a full-time nurse. And she wore a white uniform with a starched white cap. Holy crap, **Veb** – you’re as old as I am! Did you get your vaccine in that tiny pleated paper cup? Do you still have the strawberry mark on your shoulder from the vaccination for – what the heck was that one, anyway? God, my memory’s shot to hell these days… - Shuffles away \* ---
**Author:** ![Purgatory\_Creek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Purgatory\_Creek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purgatory_Creek)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/33 "2008-09-27T05:39:41Z")
Huh. Canada is a strange, strange place. I guess I can’t understand surrendering control over your children’s healthcare under any circumstances. In addition, isn’t it a waste of the school’s time, in which they’re supposed to be educating children and preparing them to succeed in life? At least in the US, the last things schools need are even **more** distractions from their essential tasks. I feel pretty much the same about schools teaching kids things like “conflict resolution,” so I’m probably not a good judge. I can’t recall having any kind of medical testing in school (US, 1960s) except those tablets that showed you where you missed when brushing your teeth and the dreaded President’s Physical Fitness tests. (Rope climbing, anyone?) We got our shots (the few there were), TB tests, and so forth from good ol’ Dr. Hagen. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/34 "2008-09-27T05:42:18Z")
I guess I’d rather my kids get shots in school than another of those stupid waste of time assemblies they throw every two weeks or so. ---
**Author:** ![Kalea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b487fb/32.png) [@Kalea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalea)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/35 "2008-09-27T05:50:26Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#): > > the strawberry mark on your shoulder from the vaccination for – what the heck was that one, anyway? Small pox, I think. I was jealous because my brother and sister got it, and I didn’t :rolleyes: And to the OP, I wish they’d had the vaccine - I’ve had HPV, and the abnormal pap and cryo treatment on my cervix. I’d take the vaccine any day - from the doctor, from the school, whatever. Now I get to hope it doesn’t come back. ---
**Author:** ![lynxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e99b99/32.png) [@lynxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lynxie)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/36 "2008-09-27T08:15:06Z")
We had a number of vacs at school - all done by roving medical teams, not the teachers and parental permission was always required. ETF - Little cup, pink liquid? I had that - at school. The other is for small pox which we got at age one. I even remember a “fluoroscope mobile” sent round by the Health Department, but I am very old. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![fiztig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f19dbf/32.png) [@fiztig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiztig)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/37 "2008-09-27T09:24:29Z")
Here in Australia it is common for vaccinations to be given in schools. All students must have a permission form signed - so no form, no injection. Your kid is not going to be vaccinated without you knowing about it. It really is a good way to try and get as wide a coverage as possible. That is how we got rid of smallpox. Sometimes I think we are such a precious bunch and we forget how insidious diseases have been effectively eliminated from our societies. With cancer being such a dreadful way to die, the fact we have a vaccination for a form of it is truly amazing. If it had been an option for me, I would have had it in a heartbeat. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/38 "2008-09-27T11:59:37Z")
When I was in middle school we all got a measles booster through the school, but all of my kids’ vaccinations have been done at the doctor’s office, including Ivygirl’s HPV vaccine, which she got last year. Can’t these girls just go to a doctor for the vaccine? So what if the school says no? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/39 "2008-09-27T12:37:15Z")
> [@Kalea](#): > > Small pox, I think. I was jealous because my brother and sister got it, and I didn’t :rolleyes: That’s the one. My mother still has a prominent, distinctive scar just below her shoulder. Kind of sad to think that, to the best of my recollection, that’s pretty much the only disease that the world has wiped out such that it no longer affects the population. (Checking my own vaccination record, I see one smallpox vaccination and 4 oral doses versus polio.) BTW, testing is underway on the HPV vaccine in young men. Not only for transmission to women, but there seems to be evidence for HPV playing a role in penile, anal, and even mouth (or was it throat?) cancers. I don’t care about the transmission - we have the first vaccine against certain forms of cancer and that is just astounding. It’s wonderful. I’m just saddened about those people who want to deny it based on how it’s a “sexual” thing. HPV is so damned common that it’s not a disease of the promiscuous, people. ---
**Author:** ![Hyperelastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Hyperelastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hyperelastic)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421/40 "2008-09-27T12:51:59Z")
I never got a vaccine at school here in the good old US of A. There was a short list of medicines the nurse was able to give in case of illness, such as aspirin, Bactine, and toothache oil. But I remember my dad telling me that in his tiny one-room schoolhouse perched on the side of a hill in darkest West Virginia, the kids were given vaccines and cod liver oil (a Vitamin A supplement). This was in the 1930s. He vividly remembered this because the vaccines were given with some sort of needle or knife that was sterilized on a gas flame before the kids’ eyes, so some of the kids had to be held down. That would be a national scandal today! And the cod liver oil (liquid form, none of these wussy capsules) caused him to dislike fish in any form until he was well into adulthood. As to the OP, if this vaccine costs $100 a pop, and the school system has 1000 kids, that’s $100,000. If vaccines are available in the health system, wouldn’t the school be much better off taking the $100k and spending it on books for the library or chocolate microscopes or something? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calgary-catholic-school-board-refuses-to-offer-hpv-vaccine-to-students/465421.md?page=3)