Vaccinate Your Kids Or Else! Arizona Officers Force Their Way into Home of Unvaxxed Kid with 105 Fev
We've all seen tweets and posts on social media where the public is either outraged or sympathetic with parents who choose not to vaccinate their children. No parent has been exempt from rude and cruel comments when it comes to the way other parents feel about their children being exposed to children who aren't vaccinated. The tweets are plentiful, and some painful, but still worth the read.
With that being said, one Arizona doctor took matters into his own hands when he decided to call the Department of Children Services on a family with an unvaccinated child. The toddler was said to be suffering from a 105-degree fever and the doctor suspected that the child may have meningitis. The wheels were set in motion and what happened next, shocked the entire community!
Via ABC15:
"The doctor chose to use DCS to remove the child and DCS chose to use the police and the police chose to use the SWAT team," said State Representative Kelly Townsend. "That is not the country that I recognize.
"Townsend says this all started back in February when the parents took the 2-year-old-boy, who isn't vaccinated, to a naturopathic doctor for a fever of about 105. The doctor instructed the parents to take the infant to the emergency room but after the doctor's visit the child's fever broke, so they never went.
After finding that out, the doctor called DCS which then called Chandler police to check on the child. After the father refused to let police into the home to check on the boy, police came back later with a search warrant and forced their way into the home after the family didn't respond.
"All because of a fever. A fever! It's absolutely ridiculous," said Nicholas Boca, the family's attorney. "That type of kicking your door in, with guns drawn... it should be reserved for violent criminals."
"At that point who now owns control over the child?" asked Townsend. "And it seems like we've given that now to the doctor and the parent no longer has the say or they risk the SWAT team taking all of your children and potentially the newborn."
Townsend says she can see both sides on this story: a concerned doctor and protective parents, but she's questioning how it was done and the amount of force used.
"We need to admit that this situation was a mistake," said Townsend. "There are other situations where there is neglect, there is abuse and that's what we need to focus on."
We'll admit, this was a little extreme but the child shouldn't have been able to have a fever that high without medical attention. As it turned out, the child only had an upper respiratory infection.
What are your thoughts on the vaccination debate?
