School vaccine likely Dec. 5

• By MARSHA SILLS
• Advocate Acadiana bureau
• Published: Nov 5, 2009 - Page: 1BA

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LAFAYETTE — The Lafayette Parish school system likely will hold its H1N1 vaccination clinics Dec. 5, said Betty Alford, schools nursing supervisor.

Alford told board members at Wednesday’s School Board meeting the date is tentative and dependent upon the arrival of vaccine.

The school system has been working in partnership with the Office of Public Health to offer the clinics.

The vaccine will be offered free to students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

The school system expects to hear from the state Department of Education about possible funds to cover operating expenses, such as printing of consent forms and staffing the schools for the clinics, she said.

Alford told board members that one clinic will be set up in each of the five high school feeder zones.

She said she hoped to have more information to offer parents by the Thanksgiving holiday about the sites and to confirm the Dec. 5 date.

On Wednesday, board members also adopted a new policy that limits school employees electronic communications with students.

The policy was met with some opposition from teachers in the audience, but is in line with new state law that requires districts to develop policies that restricts employees from communicating with students about non-educational related topics by phone or computer.

The policy prohibits personal contact by phone or computer between an employee and student unrelated to the student’s education. The policy also requires that employees report the communication if contact is made with a personal communication device.

According to the policy, approved school system electronic communication methods include: school system e-mail, school-sponsored teacher Web sites, school Web sites, school-provided phones and other electronic communications approved by the system.

Some teachers argued the policy was too vague and didn’t set perimeters for acceptable communication.

“A teacher will have to do something deemed not right for us to find out what’s not right?” asked Melinda Mangham, a retired Lafayette Parish educator.