Article March 2, 1918 Issue

My attention has been called to a statement appearing in...

Peter V. Ross—Redding, Cal.

The Searchlight

My attention has been called to a statement appearing in The Searchlight and purporting to come from the office of the state superintendent of public instruction, to the effect that Christian Scientists are opposing the physical examination of children in the public schools as a preliminary to physical training.

While I am not advised as to what Christian Scientists may actually be doing in different parts of the state in the way of opposition to this movement, still I am sure that not only they, but many other citizens, do not view with complacency the physical examination of children by school or health authorities, not merely to ascertain their fitness for physical culture, but to detect the presence of germs and secure evidence on which to base a charge of germ carrying.

The person of an individual, whether child or adult, is peculiarly sacred, and no one, under ordinary circumstances, has the right physically to examine him without first obtaining permission to do so. In the case of children the permission must of course be had from parents or guardians. This right of the individual to immunity from physical interference, so long as he deports himself with due regard to the rights of others, is one of the highest rights known to the law, and physicians, health officers, nurses, school officers, and teachers are as much bound to respect it as the layman. Their professional or official position invests them with no authority to take liberties with the persons of school children or anyone else. They have no more right to go down their throats in search of germs and to take cultures than has the janitor of the building.

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