I'm not one of those crazy anti-vaxxers but...

This school year I had a plan. I always have plans and backups to those plans in life. It's just the way my brain works. This affords me great flexibility and minimizes stress and disappointment but can also sometimes make it more difficult to come to a decision. With regards to our children's schooling, my preference is to include them in the decision as it is their life and their experience. The plan was to continue with a public online curriculum for Morgan but send Quinn to public school. I based Quinn's attending public school on these main ideas:

Quinn is a lovely, extroverted, and vivacious force of nature whose daily word count borders on auditory assault. If the average person speaks 7,000 words a day, I would guess that she likely triples that. For reference, my daily word count is unquestionably below average. This, coupled with how happy she has always been in daycare and preschool, along with a complete lack of other children her age to interact with led me to that plan. On a strictly emotional level, I could already see the excitement and anticipation on her face that first day of kindergarten as she met her new teacher and proceeded to make friends with everyone in her classroom. What was terrifying and anxiety ridden for me would be the highlight of her young life.

Why then did plans shift? The more attention I paid to the world in which we live the more concerned I became with her primary influence shifting to individuals I'd never met and potential peers and away from the safety of our home. Secondarily, homeschooling a 6th grader while also having a two year old run around seemed less than compatible with her soon to be schedule. Selfishly, I also was not thrilled with the logistics of getting her up early and transported to and from school every day. I knew I would miss the flexibility of being able to go off on a whim with the children to explore a new trail, park, lake, or activity as well as travel. While I would like to say that the combination of these factors led to the decision...they did not. It happened quite organically as I was brushing her hair last week. I asked her if she had thought about what she wanted to wear for her first day of school. I anticipated a verbose response filled with fashion and painted all glittery pink accompanied by various poses. Instead, the look on her sweet little face was of pure dread. A look I had never seen on her before. Not quite anxiety or the trepidation that is completely expected with diving into such a new and significant experience. This was something different. We chatted it out and it took me all of five minutes and a call to her Dad to shift plans.

I logged on the computer and requested enrollment for her through the same online platform her older sister Morgan used last year. The same one we had used for two of her older siblings at one point or another. I did this while sitting next to the boxes this school had already shipped for the start of Morgan's school year. It was less than a week out from the start date. Imagine my surprise and frustration when I saw Morgan's status had somehow switched to "not enrolled". I now suddenly had several plans unraveling all at once. After a very discouraging and frankly anger-inducing call to that school I told them we would not be needing their services and will be going another route. Time was ticking. It was actually fairly difficult to find another online public school option that would work for both a 6th grader and a kindergartener. The last thing I wanted days before the start of a school year was to learn to navigate two different programs and platforms. I also desperately wanted Quinn's first experience with school to be a positive one. And fun as well if I'm being completely honest because its kindergarten.

Best homeschool space I could setup right now with all the home renovations.

I felt my own anxiety closing in and immediately knew what to do. I prayed to God. A very simple prayer..."I trust that it was in Your plan to to not have K12 work out for either of the girls. I ask Your guidance as I search for a new option. Amen." With that everything else fell in place and school starts on September 7th for both of the girls. We still had to do assessments and fill out enrollment paperwork and a few other things but I felt at peace and the girls were both excited again. Well...Quinn was excited. Morgan was as thrilled as she could be based on her less than excited stance on any type of formal schooling. This leads me to the part of the enrollment process that would require me to fill out a form that I had never completed and submitted before. This form was the Washington State Department of Health Certificate of Exemption for school immunization requirements. You see, not too long ago I was still on active duty in the Coast Guard and made the decision to get vaccinated with the covid vaccine. Long story short...I would not have gotten vaccinated had I been closer to retirement. I was not willing to lose out on my retirement pay and be labeled a "conspiracy theorist". That was the last vaccine I will ever get voluntarily. My children will not get any vaccinations whatsoever. While I felt that my hands were tied, there was no way that I was having them receive the covid vaccine. They previously received every vaccine on schedule according to the CDC's recommendation. As a corpsman in the military, I am well versed in vaccination and immunization schedules and have personally administered thousands of vaccinations...from tetanus and polio to anthrax and smallpox. Covid is what changed it for me. Maybe I'll go into my thought process on that in a later post...

The decisions we made to keep Quinn home and to not vaccinate were both almost immediately validated for me through two specific experiences. The first was when I went into what would have been Quinn's initial brick and mortar public elementary school to pick up a choice transfer form required by the school district to shift her out of her local district and into the Valley, WA district which is where their new school is based. As I walked in (on what would have been Quinn's second day at that school) I saw a double row line of young children all holding their lunch trays, the lobby decorated with balloons of welcome to ease them into the transition. My first instinct was a voice of doubt that maybe we had made the wrong decision and Quinn was "missing out". I retrieved the form and on my way out that same line was now nearing the end of the hallway to turn the corner. One small child turned to look back holding up the line. The teacher leading them quickly reached down and spun the child back forward in the "right" direction with a shockingly harsh reprimand. The dance of conformation and compliance had begun. The second instance was when I took the certificates of exemption to the children's pediatrician's office. I wasn't sure if their doctor would sign the form or if she would require an appointment with the children to discuss the ramifications and dangers of having unvaccinated children. I explained my request to the medical assistant at the front desk. She went back to ask and returned with a message from the doctor that she was not affiliated with a religious organization and that I should take the form to a religious organization. I politely pointed out that there are in fact two categories of exemption that a parent can request: the first (which I had requested) is labeled Personal/Philosophical Exemption. The second is the Religious Membership Exemption:

Certificate of Exemption.pdf

Download PDF • 1.50MB

The medical assistant went back to the doctor at my request to ask if her opinion had shifted based on my request not being "religiously" motivated. Again she returned, this time with a visible shift in demeanor and irritation level. She said in a belittling voice "The doctor has never even seen your youngest child Quinn!" My response...Quinn has never been sick since we've lived here so why would she have seen her? This was met with firm instructions that an appointment would need to be scheduled for both. I politely thanked her for her time, headed out to my car, drove home and completed the Religious Exemption portion of the form. I do not fall into the category that I previously referred to as "faith-based medical neglect". I refuse to knowingly place my children in harm's way and although the system is designed to garner compliance and meet "stepping out of line" (much like the kindergartener I saw in the hallway) with harshness and reproach, I have done 22 years in the military and I am now free. My husband has been against vaccinations and immunizations for quite awhile but I am a people pleaser by nature and I was very good at marching in that line, eyes forward, with my mouth shut. That coupled with my genuine belief that vaccination was the best route is what led to my prior stance.

"God overlooks it as long as you don't know any better-but that time is past. The unknown is now known and He's calling for a radical life-change. He has a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the Judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead." - Acts 17:30-31

I may do a future post after further research on the origins of the public school system in the United States. Concepts to be covered would include the compulsory nature of school, the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, hidden curriculum, and passive subservience.

"The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exagerated competetive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career." -Albert Einstein

In full disclosure, I am not a passionate advocate for socialism like the renowned physicist Albert Einstein was but his quote does get the wheels turning. And also...I should probably stop prefacing my comments regarding vaccinations with "I'm not one of those crazy anti-vaxxers" because as it turns out...I am.