Two school boards veto Gardasil vaccine

St. Thomas Aquinas and Calgary Catholic will not offer HPV immunization

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer

Two Alberta Catholic school boards have voted to keep the province’s human papillomavirus vaccination campaign out of their schools.

The Leduc-based St. Thomas Aquinas Roman Catholic School board and Calgary Catholic voted recently against offering Grade 5 girls the Gardasil vaccine that protects against HPV, a sexually-transmitted infection that causes some cervical cancers.

However the vaccine will be available in Edmonton Catholic schools later this fall.

Edmonton says yes

“We will defer this decision to the parents because it’s a health issue,” said Lori Nagy, spokesperson for Edmonton Catholic.

Nagy said detailed information about the vaccine, as well as consent forms, will be sent home allowing parents to opt out of the program.

“If they sign the consent form, their child will get the HPV vaccine,” Nagy added. “Our board views this as a health issue, not a faith-based issue, and it will be handled like all other vaccines that are given in our schools.”

On Sept. 19, six of nine St. Thomas Aquinas school trustees voted not to offer Gardasil in their schools.

“I guess our primary reason (for this decision) is we really feel that there is a degree of uncertainty surrounding this vaccination and how beneficial it is to the whole health of a young girl,” board chair Sandra Bannard said Sept. 29.

“We feel there has to be a parental choice free of any kind of endorsement from the school division,” she said. “If (parents) think it’s the right choice for their daughters, that’s perfectly within their right to do. But I don’t think it needs another layer of endorsement from our board.”

Bannard, who voted against providing the vaccine in the schools, said a June statement from the Alberta bishops influenced the board’s decision.

Sending a message

The statement says although school-based immunization delivery systems generally result in high numbers of students completing immunization, “a school-based approach to vaccination sends a message that early sexual intercourse is allowed, as long as one uses ‘protection.’”

HPV can only be transmitted through sexual activity. The Gardasil vaccine protects against the four strains of papillomavirus that cause 70 per cent of cervical cancers and 90 per cent of genital warts. Girls in Edmonton schools will begin getting shots in November.

“The bishops’ perspective certainly played a role, as it rightly should,” Bannard said. “We are a Catholic school (division) and I would definitely say it was one of the influences in the minds of trustees as they went to vote on this.”

The St. Thomas Aquinas district has 2,470 students in Leduc, Beaumont, Drayton Valley, Lacombe, Ponoka and Wetaskiwin. Calgary’s Catholic trustees voted six to one Sept. 24 against making the vaccine available.

“We look to our bishop (Fred Henry) for moral guidance and he has indicated that he does not support the Gardasil vaccine offered in the schools,” said Marge Belcourt, chair of the Calgary board.

“He sees this as an spiritual and moral issue, not an education issue. And since it is not an education issue, we don’t feel that it has to be in the schools,” added Belcourt. “The second thing is that we believe that it is a parental choice. Parents are the primary educators and they should make this decision.”

Calgary Catholic has more than 43,000 students in 102 schools. About 3,400 Grade 5 students will be affected by the board’s decision.

“We feel that our job as educators is to give students the bishops’ letter and the information that comes from the health board, not to offer the vaccine (in the schools),” Belcourt said.

Free vaccine

It has been said that if parents choose to give the vaccine to their daughters through doctors, it will cost them at least $450. But Bannard disagrees, saying she heard from her own health board that the vaccine will be administered free of charge to all Grade 5 girls, even if it’s done outside the school system.

“If parents choose to have their children vaccinated, they should not be penalized,” said Belcourt. “They should feel they have access to the vaccine. Health Canada says it is available to all (Grade 5 girls).”

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