Article May 25, 1918 Issue

From the Press

[From a "Special" to The Christian Science Monitor]

The school committee of this city [Portland, Maine] by a vote of ten to two has adopted the following rule, which becomes effective immediately, in regard to the vaccination of school children: "No child shall attend any public school without furnishing a certificate from some reputable physician that he or she has been successfully vaccinated. Exceptions to this rule will only be made, first, in the case of a pupil whose parents or guardian present satisfactory evidence in a sworn statement that they are opposed to vaccination on principle; and second, in the case of pupils who present from a physician a statement satisfactory to the school committee certifying that they are unfit subjects for vaccination. When it is necessary, in the opinion of the school committee, on account of the presence of smallpox in the city, these unvaccinated pupils may be excluded from school."

This rule was adopted after correspondence with the Board of Education of Cleveland, Ohio, where a similar rule has been put into effect. The experience of Cleveland with this rule was officially reported to be approximately as follows: "Number of children in public schools, 105,000; number of children successfully vaccinated, 100,000; number of children presenting sworn statements, 4000; number of children presenting physicians' statements, 1000."

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