[cogman10]

As someone who 100% supports pretty much everyone getting the COVID vaccine (and check your MMR status), yeah, a school can't just vaccinate kids without parental consent. That's insane.

The fact is, there are rare conditions and reactions to vaccination that and a school won't be privy to that information. The only people that will know that are the parents.

[redczar]

The only people that will know that are the parents.

This is not true.

[Analemma_]

The headline is referring to the consent of the child, which is much more important: if a 14-year-old wants the vaccine and their parents don't want them to have it, they should be allowed to get it (and the article specifically points out that this is permitted under North Carolina law). What actually happened here is much worse than that.

[wtallis]

If there's any hope of having a reasonable discussion about this topic on HN, it surely doesn't start with an article like this one. That site appears to be devoted to the kind of flamebait that's not appropriate here.

[dmitrygr]

Which makes sense… school apparatchiks have no authority to make medical decisions for a kid. That’s what parents are for. A real doctor may, and even then only if it is a medical emergency that requires immediate attention (like bleeding out)

[wrs]

Though just to be clear, because the term "medical decision" is rather broad, all 50 states have immunization requirements for attending school.

[redczar]

There are many documented instances of parents being shitty and making decisions that are contrary to the best interests of their child. It is proper that the state mandate certain vaccines for all kids. We can not trust parents to always make the morally correct choice. Sometimes society needs to mandate certain choices for the greater good.