Coventry School Committee Votes to Oppose HPV Vaccine Mandate

In July, Rhode Island became just the second state to require that all seventh graders receive the HPV vaccine before being allowed in school. Now, some local communities, including Coventry, are fighting the controversial mandate.

The Coventry School Committee on Tuesday approved a resolution asking Gov. Gina Raimondo to rescind the requirement that 12-year-olds must be vaccinated against the most common sexually transmitted disease, reports NBC 10 News.

“It was a way that we could acknowledge the power of the people in the state,” said School Committee member James Pierson of the committee’s unanimous, 5-0, vote. “All we’re simply asking is that the governor and the Department of Health - we respectfully request they reconsider the mandate and actually remove the mandate.”

Coventry isn’t alone in opposing the mandate. The Rhode Island ACLU, while supporting preventative health in general, opposes such punitive measures to force it upon students.

“Excluding middle and high school students from school for being unvaccinated against HPV strikes us as an unfitting and disproportionate remedy,” the ACLU stated on its website. “Exclusion from school is an extremely severe penalty that should be used only when truly necessary, and not as a stick to promote more generalized public health goals.”

A grassroots organization, Rhode Islanders Against Mandated HPV Vaccinations, is asking residents to sign its petition against the mandate. The petition had more than 2,600 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.

A stream of parents voiced their opposition to the mandate during a recent public forum at the Peace Dale Library in South Kingstown, the South County Independent reports, and some conservative groups like the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity have been fighting the decision since its announcement.

Gov. Raimondo’s office reiterated its support for the federal Centers for Disease Control’s recommendations that governments require the vaccine.

“These regulations were finalized over a year ago after a public hearing,” said Marie Aberger, spokesperson for Raimondo. ”The governor recognizes there are concerns about mandatory vaccinations, but the CDC recommends the HPV vaccine as a safe and effective way to help prevent cancer in males and females and save lives. As a mom, she supports steps to help our children and families be as healthy as possible.”

Human Papillomavirus vaccines are given as a series of three shots over six months. The CDC recommends the shots “to protect against HPV infection and the health problems that HPV infection can cause,” including cervical cancer, genital warts, anal cancer, vulvar cancer and vaginal cancer.

HPV is the most common sexually transmitted disease.

You can get HPV by having vaginal, anal, or oral sex with someone who has the virus,” the CDC reports. “Anyone who is sexually active can get HPV, even if you have had sex with only one person. HPV is so common that nearly all sexually active men and women get it at some point in their lives.”

The HPV town hall meeting scheduled for Thursday in Newport has been canceled.

What do you think? Should the state require HPV vaccines for seventh graders? Let us know in the comments section below.