Grade 8 girls in the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board will be the only ones in the province not to get a free cancer-preventing vaccine in their schools.
Trustees voted Wednesday 5-4 to deny access to health officials.
The trustees turned down a motion proposed by senior administrators that would have allowed Algoma Public Health to administer the human papilloma virus vaccine under a provincewide program targeting all Grade 8 girls.
The local health authority recently expressed hope that the school board would follow the lead of other Catholic boards and allow the vaccine for HPV.
The virus is the primary cause of genital warts and the leading cause of cervical cancer.
Trustees opposed to the motion argued that providing a vaccine for a sexually transmitted disease, rather than dealing with the issue through promotion of abstinence, goes against their Catholic values and assumes premarital sex is occurring.
“When someone says one thing and does another you're called a hypocrite,” said trustee Grace Tridico. “Teaching abstinence and supporting the HPV vaccine clinics, for me is a clear case of hypocrisy.”
Some trustees also cited health concerns associated with the vaccine.
“They are the only school board in Ontario that is refusing to have the program delivered in the schools,” said Susan Kniahnicki, program director for Algoma Public Health.
The first round of vaccinations has been done at Algoma District School Board schools, with no ill effects reported, Ms. Kniahnicki said.
Randy Schuran, chairman of the regional school council committee, questioned whether trustees who voted against the motion knew the minds of parents, and criticized those trustees for taking the decision away from parents.
“They never asked the parents ‘Do you want us to speak for your children,'” he said. “Let the parents decide.”
Mr. Schuran, who also sits as a regional director on a provincial parents group, said he is concerned that Ms. Tridico's remarks could be interpreted as calling Catholic boards which have allowed the vaccinations hypocrites.
Several trustees spoke out in favour of having the vaccine administered in schools, voicing concerns over the cost to parents of getting the vaccine elsewhere and questioning the board's right to keep the province from using the schools for vaccines.
“It just doesn't make any sense; it's the parent's responsibility to make informed decisions, not the trustees, and we're taking that decision out of the parent's hands,” said trustee Lindsay Liske.
“Other vaccinations never come in front of this board for approval, and I'm not sure why this one is, other than it being attached to promiscuity,” said trustee John Caputo.
He said he believes parents and teachers are doing a good job of teaching Catholic morals and beliefs to students. He also pointed out that the vaccine also protects abstinent females who may marry spouses who contracted HPV prior to marriage.
“I'm in favour of this so we can offer these young ladies the protection they need in order to procreate later on in the future, and I don't think we have the right to deny the government access to our schools,” Mr. Caputo said.
Ms. Kniahnicki said as it stands the free program is not available outside schools.
