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A California school district has removed blood-drawn language from its COVID test consent form for students after an outcry from parents.
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) emailed parents on Sunday evening asking them to sign a consent form regarding COVID testing for their children – regardless of vaccination status.
The original form read, “I authorize this COVID-19 test unit to collect and test for COVID-19 through saliva swab, nasopharyngeal swab, anterior nostril swab. or a blood test, as ordered by an authorized medical provider or public health official. ”
Santa Monica-Malibu School District
(SMMUSD)
An additional message to parents of Superintendent Dr Ben Drati said that “if a student refuses the test, the student will be sent home and will not be cleared until school officials are satisfied that there is no contagious disease. or infectious does not exist “.
Parents immediately understood the language of the consent form’s ‘blood draw’ and posted screenshots to various Facebook groups. One of these parents was Dr Houman David Hemmati. He told Fox News that on Monday morning, the “blood draw” option was removed by the district without any comment.
“Local school boards are trying to act like mini public health departments, going well beyond federal, state, and even county health mandates to perform mandatory asymptomatic testing and other requirements that are not substantiated. by clinical evidence or government warrants, ”Hemmati said. Fox News. “There is real concern that going on a massive fishing expedition to find positive cases among a sea of asymptomatic school children and teachers will lead to unnecessary panic and academic disruption.”
Reopen California Schools, an online group campaigning for a return to full in-person learning, first warned Fox News about the blood tests.
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SMMUSD told Fox News that the consent form did not apply to the district and that he never intended to draw blood as part of his testing.
“The language was removed as soon as we became aware of concerns about included language provided by our testing partners,” Gail Pinsker, SMMUSD’s communications and public relations manager, told Fold News. “Everything we have communicated to parents about our tests is correct – using a shallow nasal swab, which parents support. Unfortunately, the blood test was included in the consent form. It was an oversight and now corrected. ”
Pinsker said having a child’s blood drawn outside of a parent’s presence – as was the case with many parents – was never planned, discussed or planned by the district. She said the district uses two medical providers, one of which included the language “blood draw”, while the other did not.
“We are working extremely hard during a difficult time to best protect our students and staff so that the school can remain open to in-person learning,” Pinsker said. “Guidelines from our guide agencies arrive quickly and change regularly.”
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SMUUSD started the new school year on August 19 and plans to implement COVID testing on August 25. A school board meeting is scheduled for Monday evening.
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