Friday Open Thread

To note, Director Peters has changed her community meeting this weekend.  It will NOT be on Saturday the 3rd but will be on Sunday, September 11th from 1-3 pm at Magnolia Library.

In the "things that make you go, hmmm" column, a reporter from the Times covered the 100 Black Parents meeting about Garfield's Honors for All program and yet, nothing in the paper about it.

The vaccination issue has come again just as school is starting up.  Two good stories, one from The Olympian and one from KUOW.  The KUOW story has a link to King County Health where you can look up the vaccination rate at your child's school.  A cursory check finds several "50-70% complete" schools throughout our district.  The ones that have 50% or fewer tend to be private schools.
Nearly 90 percent of pediatricians encountered parents who opted out of vaccinations entirely in 2013, up from about 75 percent in 2006. And almost one in five parents asked to delay some or all of the potentially lifesaving shots.

It also found a rise in the top reason doctors say parents reject immunizations: They just don’t think they’re necessary.
First Place School, which had served largely homeless children and had a troubled year as the first charter school in Washington state before it converted back to being private, is now cutting second to fifth grades.  That may mean some new students on some Seattle schools.  From KOMO news:
This week, many parents received a voice mail from the school informing them because of "budgetary constraints" First Place would operate as a private school for "pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and the 1st grade only". For parents like Hecker, whose daughter attends the second grade, they felt like they were duped.

Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article98694567.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article98694567.html#storylink=cpy
The 70mm Film Festival is coming up at the Cinerama.  If you or your child have never seen a film in this format, consider going.  They are showing a wide range of films from The Sound of Music to Aliens to Pink Floyd The Wall.  

What's on your mind?

Comments

Anonymous said…
"The ones that have 50% or fewer tend to be private schools."

Waldorf at 37%!!!!

At least almost all of the Catholic schools are >90%

-NEPerson
Anonymous said…
My kids went to Waldorf, one K-8 and the other K-12. Most of the kids there are selectively vaccinated and a few are no vaccinations. My own were selectively - skipped chickenpox (they had it) and HPV. I don't think the report distinguishes between full and partial vaccination. The most common vaccine people had their kids get was the polio vaccine. The least common, chickenpox and HPV. Oh and flu vaccine, I don't know anyone who got that one.

HP
Anonymous said…
Partial or delayed vaccination is effectively the same as not vaccinating.

California just passed a law strictly limiting public school vaccination exemptions, and it's worked well at reducing the opt-out numbers. A similar bill failed in Olympia in 2015 but hopefully will come back in 2017.

Dr. Jenner
I'll note that the KUOW story's expert said that if you had a school with a lower than 90% vaccination rate and a child somehow brought something like measles in the school, the outcomes would be much worse than a school with herd immunity. I don't think parents really know how bad it could be.
NO 1240 said…

I am not surprised First Place school closed. Just months after First Place opened their doors:

"Its first principal resigned in November, more than half of its original board of directors have left, too, and the state’s charter-school commission has identified more than a dozen potential problems that need to be fixed soon if the school wants to keep its doors open."

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/statersquos-first-charter-school-in-disarray/

Too bad the kids got caught in the middle of this.
Anonymous said…
While in Waldorf, several kids got whooping cough. It never spread through the whole population even though we were under 90% vaccination rate. My own kids were vaccinated for it. The kids with whooping cough stayed home until they were over it. The school let everyone know about it so that parents with young children could take precautions.

I know this is anecdotal but there are large populations in all Waldorf schools throughout the country who are not vaccinated or are selectively vaccinated.

HP
Anonymous said…
Unfortunately, not vaccinating kids puts everyone - especially the immunocompromised (think cancer patients), the very young, and the elderly - at risk for serious complications and even death.

Keeping kids home from school and notifying the community of people you personally know, doesn't truly mitigate the disease consequences because diseases infect others before you or your family know you are sick and therefore contagious. -NP
Joe Wolf said…
Pics from Friday's ribbon cutting & open house at Seattle World School's new campus.

https://www.facebook.com/joe.wolf.988/posts/10208359774846630?pnref=story
Blotter said…
On Thursday, all district staff were required to attend training on disparity in test scores and the "school to prison pipeline." One of the videos we were required to watch was from a man named Willard Jimerson, who talked about how teachers had cared about him, gave him so many second chances and did not have him expelled. It was a heart-warming story until somebody Googled Jimerson and found out that he murdered a girl in cold blood in 1994 for no apparent reason. Is this really the best person the district could find? Why do schools so quickly take on responsibility for the failures of home and society?
Anonymous said…
Blotter, there was a 12 minute video prepared for the training that introduced Jimerson's story with much more context. Your facilitators should have showed it or at least summarized it for your staff. -Watched It

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