A Northern BC teacher has been reprimanded by the province’s regulator for previously disrupting a COVID-19 vaccination clinic that had been operating in his school’s cafeteria..The incident occurred in October 2021 when the district and local health authority set up a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in the high school cafeteria where students were, as the regulator puts it, “encouraged to attend the clinic in order to get vaccinated.”.The consent resolution agreement was made public Tuesday. It says Patrick James Nelson, a secondary school teacher in the Coast Mountains School District in Terrace, BC, left the class where he was teaching and “angrily interrupted and disrupted the vaccination clinic with students present.”.The teacher proceeded to tell health authority workers they had no legal right to inject children without parental consent, the vaccines were experimental and potentially dangerous, and the information was being presented in an unethical manner..He also told staff that they should be "ashamed of themselves.".The agreement notes as justification for punishment Nelson approached a nurse “without wearing a mask over his nose,” further highlighting that he pointed his finger and yelled at her in violation of “physical distancing safety protocols.”.“Some students were upset and had to be removed from the cafeteria,” reads the agreement..The district suspended Nelson without pay from March 7 to March 18, 2022, further requiring him to write an apology to the health clinic personnel and attend a meeting with “affected students and staff” at the school..In addition to a formal reprimand, Nelson is also required to complete a conflict resolution course by June of this year..In BC, the Infants Act says a minor’s ability to consent to medical treatment is not relative to their age, but rather their level of maturity. If a healthcare worker determines treatment such as a vaccine is in the child’s best interest, and that the child understands the potential risks and benefits, parental consent is not needed. The policy has given rise to much controversy in recent years..The COVID-19 vaccine consent form for “mature minors” at the time of the Nelson's protest can be viewed here, although the province said the forms were “optional” and not a requirement for youth to get their COVID-19 vaccines.
