The superintendent of a Denver-area school district said the administration of COVID-19 vaccines to students at a local high school without parental permission shown in viral videos was not sanctioned by the district or the high school.
Littleton Public Schools Superintendent Brian Ewert said the blame for the protocols at an after-school vaccination clinic at Heritage High School lay with the Tri-County Health Department and that the district would no longer hold such clinics.
“We incorrectly assumed that all vaccination clinics in Colorado followed the same vaccination protocol as Children’s Hospital, requiring a parent to be present during a vaccination,” Ewert wrote in a letter to parents.
“We were informed this morning by Tri-County Health that the State of Colorado does not require minors to be accompanied by a parent or guardian as long as parental consent is collected and shared prior to the appointment through the vaccine provider’s online scheduling system,” he continued.
PROPOSED SOUTH CAROLINA LAW WOULD MAKE IT ILLEGAL TO REQUEST A PERSON’S VACCINE STATUS
The clinic, while hosted by the Tri-County Health Department, was staffed by employees of Jogan Health Solutions, which helps staff pop-up vaccination sites and provides other “crisis response and logistics solutions.”
The superintendent’s letter came after several videos went viral showing that students at the clinic were able to get vaccinated without parental notice because several of them made up names and birthdates, according to the popular Twitter account Libs of TikTok.
THREAD: A school in Colorado hosted a vaccine clinic during school hours. A 16 yr old student recorded the nurse agreeing to give him a vaccine while lying about his age. They did not ask for I.D. pic.twitter.com/GXflOnxvks
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) January 25, 2022
The Colorado school which held a vaccine clinic during school hours agreed to give a minor a vaccine without a parent present after assuring parents that they will not do this. pic.twitter.com/bORMbNc8hY
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) January 25, 2022
The videos directly contradicted the reassurances from the healthcare provider, a fact Ewert noted in his statement.
“We don’t believe Jogan Health employees followed the proper protocol in obtaining parent permission, potentially putting children at risk,” Ewert said.
A representative for Jogan Health Solutions referred the Washington Examiner to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which did not respond to a request for comment.
In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Tri-County Health Department spokeswoman Becky O’Guin said the agency follows “all state of Colorado protocols for collecting parental consent for minors seeking vaccinations.”
“Based on the videos in question, it appears that one of the students may have provided a note with written consent from their parent/legal guardian while the other offered inaccurate information about their age (which the provider was unable to confirm based on a State of Colorado Public Health Order prohibiting vaccine providers from requiring an ID),” O’Guin said. “Our judgment is that State protocols appear to have been followed in assessing appropriateness of offering vaccination.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“We have reported our concerns to Tri-County Health and CDPHE officials, and we expect to have conversations with officials from both organizations today,” Ewert said. “Regardless of the outcome of these conversations, LPS will no longer provide locations for COVID vaccination clinics.”
