CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Parents upset about the city’s Teen Mobile Vaccination Program led to a protest outside W.B. Ray High School Wednesday.
The program sets up vaccination clinics in Corpus Christi ISD middle and high schools, which has some parents upset. One of Wednesday’s clinics was at Ray.
Those parents are upset that CCISD is allowing vaccines to be administered without parents present. They're also concerned that the district's waiver says the vaccine “could cause serious injury or death”.
“This is something parents should be standing beside their kids to do,” said parent Carrie Robertson-Meyer. “Parents should do a lot of research, I'm sure everyone is. And find out what the risks are, that your kid could have a reaction.”
Many of the group of nine parents protested say they aren't against the vaccine itself, they say believe getting it should be an individual choice. They also don't believe the city and school district should be providing the vaccine at school.
“We just think that's not the right thing for the city to do, definitely not the right thing for the school district to be doing,” said Meyer. “School districts should be teaching kids, not inoculating them.”
These parents say they never had a chance to voice their concerns to the district.
“Since the Spring, Corpus Christi ISD has partnered with local healthcare providers to host COVID-19 vaccine clinics on district property,” the district said in a statement. “Additionally, we have held back-to-school immunization clinics for a number of years on district property. The programs are always voluntary. Children under the age of 18 must have parent permission to receive immunizations.”
The Corpus Christi/Nueces County Public Health District reported that since Teen MVP started September 1st, 71 vaccines had been administered.