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Canada or bust for PoCo 3D maven SCHOOL DISTRICT 43
SD43 wants vaccinations mandatory in BC schools
TC
Mayors want more power over TransLink; Fassbender doesn’t see big changes WEDNESDAY, DEC. 16, 2015 Your community. Your stories.
TRI-CITY
NEWS
A FUNDRAISER FOR THE BIRDS
Board wants vote by trustees’ ass’n. DIANE STRANDBERG Tri-CiTy News
School District 43 trustees want the province to make vaccinations mandatory for children attending B.C. public schools. Board chair Judy Shirra said the reemergence of preventable diseases such as measles and whooping cough has made the issue urgent and she hopes the BC School Trustees Association will pass SD43’s resolution calling for mandatory vaccinations at its annual general meeting in April. “For me, it was long overdue,” said Shirra, a Port Coquitlam trustee. “It’s very rarely a chair makes a motion. I thought, If I can get this on its way, it would be nice to have it ready before next year.” The resolution, passed unanimously by trustees at
TRUSTEE JUDY SHIRRA the Dec. 8 board of education meeting, comes eight months after a measles scare at PoCo’s Terry Fox secondary, when a student came down with the disease after taking a flight from China. Public health nurses scoured immunization records for 1,500 students and held vaccination clinics, and in the end, a handful of students whose vaccinations couldn’t be proved were asked to stay home. see ‘HEAD IN THE SAND’, page 6
Tri-City school trustees took a trip to China to sell sD43 to parents there — but local taxpayers aren’t on the hook for the costs: page 3
Volunteer Paul Steeves’ photo of a cedar waxwing that was rescued in Coquitlam in July was chosen to be the photo on a Christmas card (above) for the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC. Funds from sales of the card will go to pay for food and medicines for the approximately 6,000 birds and mammals the association takes care of each year. For more, see article on page 18.
TC ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT Musician Devin Cuddy is a chip off the old block – and he’ll be on the CP Holiday Train saturday: page 32
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