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The Student News Site of Foothill Technology High School

The Foothill Dragon Press

The Student News Site of Foothill Technology High School

The Foothill Dragon Press

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Legislators pass law requiring students to receive Tdap shot

State legislators have passed a new law that will require all 7th-12th grade students to receive a Tdap shot. Credit: Alex Phelps/The Foothill Dragon Press.
State legislators have passed a new law that will require all 7th-12th grade students to receive a Tdap shot. Credit: Alex Phelps/The Foothill Dragon Press.
State legislators have passed a new law that will require all 7th-12th grade students to receive a Tdap shot. Credit: Alex Phelps/The Foothill Dragon Press.

For the 2011-12 school year, all students entering 7th through 12th grades will need proof of a whooping cough (Tdap) booster vaccine before starting school, in accordance with a new law AB 354.

Scares of whooping cough throughout this year have prompted state legislators to pass this precautionary measure.

“It is very unusual for the state to require that many kids to be immunized,” said Foothill school nurse Mary Johnson. “It’s the worst whooping cough epidemic in fifty years.”

According to Johnson, if students have received the Tdap vaccine since they were seven, then they are covered.

Like other vaccinations, a waiver is available to students. However, due to the severity of Pertussis, a separate waiver has been made specifically for the Tdap vaccine.

If an epidemic of Pertussis does break out in the community, Public Health will send notices to all students with waivers to leave school within the hour. These students will not be allowed back at school until no cases are left.

“You can imagine how our students would feel about that,” said Foothill health technician Debbie Fennern. “They hate to miss one day.”

Although the immunization for Pertussis does not guarantee 100% coverage against whooping cough, it is highly effective.

“Like Varicella, chicken pox, you may still get it but at a way lower level,” Johnson said. She encourages all students to get vaccinated for Pertussis if they haven’t already done so.

“The child not immunized becomes the well, the source…of affecting other people,” Johnson said.

Once a student is sent home from school because they are not immunized, they cannot receive the vaccination and return to school until the epidemic is over.

“It’s a very serious thing,” Johnson said.

Although no cases have been verified at Foothill, Ventura Unified has had several occurrences of Pertussis.

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The Student News Site of Foothill Technology High School
Legislators pass law requiring students to receive Tdap shot