A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
LIFEWAYS
continued from Page A1
workers for the service.
GOBHI, as the contract-
ing agency, has Lifeways’
fate in its hands. Campbell
said the board met Feb. 8
to discuss the issue. Board
members gave their approval
for hiring Spriggs-Flanders.
“We took into consider-
ation the progress that has
been made to date,” Camp-
bell said. “The action of the
board was to hold in abey-
ance termination of the por-
tion of mental health services
contract for crisis services in
Umatilla County.”
Pendleton Police Chief
Stuart Roberts, who has
been involved with discus-
sions with both Lifeways
and GOBHI, said he thinks
the group is making positive
changes.
“One thing we have now
that we didn’t have before
is investment by the CEO,”
he said, referring to Tim
Hoekstra, who was hired in
January.
He said they are work-
ing with law enforce-
ment to close some of the
gaps in following through
with patients. He said that
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2018
FROM PAGE A1
HOUSE FIRE
includes implementing a
strategy that ensures that
people in crisis are released
to a responsible person, and
to a safe location.
Roberts said he wasn’t
so concerned with Lifeways
making changes by the Feb.
20 deadline, as long as they
continued to make them.
“That’s a pretty aggres-
sive timeline,” he said. “As
long as I can see progress
being made, I’m willing to
play along. As far as I’m
concerned, the probation-
ary status is kind of ongo-
ing until we get to where we
need to be, and we’ve got a
long path to travel.”
Umatilla County Fire District #1 responded to a house fire on North Ash Road in Stanfield
Tuesday afternoon. The fire may have started in the basement, and smoke was coming out
of the chimney and eaves, but officials at the scene said the cause was still unknown. No
one was injured.
BTW
continued from Page A1
RSVP, please call 541-969-
8938 or email marika@ore-
gonwatercoalition.org.
• • •
There’s still time to
win sweet prizes during
the Valentine Reading
Challenge.
Kids need to turn in
reading logs by Wednes-
day, Feb. 28 at the Hermis-
ton Public Library, 235 E.
Gladys Ave. For more infor-
mation, call 541-567-2882.
• • •
TruCare
Pregnancy
Resource Center recently
celebrated the success of its
first fundraising event. The
local nonprofit organiza-
tion provides assistance to
people facing an unplanned
pregnancy.
The Jan. 28 event fea-
tured keynote speaker Kirk
Walden, a longtime pro-
life advocate and author
of “The Wall: Rebuild-
ing a culture of LIFE in
America and ending abor-
tion as we know it.” Exec-
utive director Debbie Cis-
sna said the generosity of
local churches, businesses
and individuals was over-
whelming. Money raised
during the banquet helps
in highlighting life-affirm-
ing choices to community
members.
“We would like to extend
our deepest and most heart-
felt appreciation for your
support at the ‘Rebuild-
ing A Culture of Life’ ban-
quet,” Cissna said. “Thank
you for making the eve-
ning such a special com-
munity event. Each dona-
tion enables us to continue
bringing hope to moms
and dads facing pregnancy
decisions.”
TruCare
Pregnancy
Resource Center is located
at 105 S.W. Second St.,
Hermiston. For more infor-
mation, contact 541-567-
2393,
info@trucareprc.
com or visit www.tru-
careprc.com.
• • •
Tickets are still available
for “An Evening in Paris,”
a fundraiser for the Court
Appointed Special Advo-
cate (CASA) program. The
gala event transports peo-
ple to the “City of Love”
and features an elegant din-
ner and a dueling piano
show. Money raised helps
local children in foster care.
The event is Satur-
day from 6-10 p.m. at the
Hermiston
Community
Center, 415 S. Highway
395. General admission
is $40 per person and VIP
seats are $75 each. Tick-
ets, which are $40 per per-
son and VIP seats are $75
each, can be purchased at
Umatilla Morrow County
Head Start, 110 N.E.
Fourth St., or www.umchs.
com/donate. For questions,
call 541-564-6878.
———
You can submit items
for our weekly By The Way
column by emailing your
tips to editor@hermiston-
herald.com or share them
on social media using the
hashtag #HHBTW.
SHOP ONLINE 24/7 HERMISTONCDJR.COM
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Registered nurse Eryn Griffin fills a syringe while preparing a dose of the Menactra vaccine
on Thursday at the Umatilla County Health Department offices in Hermiston. Menactra is a
vaccine that prevents some forms of meningitis.
EXCLUSION
continued from Page A1
Such outbreaks are exam-
ples of waning herd immu-
nity, said Umatilla County
Public Health Administrator
Jim Setzer. When the major-
ity of a group gets vacci-
nated, a virus can’t easily
spread from person to per-
son and unvaccinated people
are generally protected, but
herd immunity works only if
most people get immunized.
Vaccinations are top of
mind right now for Setzer
due to Exclusion Day. The
county sent letters warn-
ing of potential exclusion to
parents of 530 students on
Feb. 5.
“Some of them aren’t up
to date and others simply
have incomplete records,”
Setzer said. “We want to
help them resolve this how-
ever it works for them.”
Last year on Exclusion
Day, schools in the county
sent 147 students home. Par-
ents have three options: get
their children’s records to
school, secure the required
vaccines or file an exemp-
tion. Exemptions are either
medical or non-medical.
Parents can qualify for
non-medical exemptions by
completing a 15-60 minute
online class and print out a
Vaccine Education Certif-
icate. Many parents have
done just that. Oregon’s
non-medical exemption rate
is one of the highest in the
country. During the 2016-
17, 6.7 percent of Oregon’s
kindergarteners had exemp-
tions for at least one vac-
cine. Despite that statistic,
most Oregon schools have
relatively few exemptions
with only a small number
of schools having extremely
high rates, according to
Stacy de Assis Matthews,
the Oregon Health Author-
ity’s school immunization
law coordinator.
According to the Oregon
Health Authority’s search-
able database, for example,
in the 2016-17 school year,
most Umatilla and Morrow
county schools had exemp-
tion rates of under 6 per-
cent, including Sandstone
Middle School in Hermiston
(1 percent) and Irrigon Ele-
mentary (1 percent). While
Sandstone sent home 16
students last year, Armand
Larive Middle School sent
home the highest number of
students in the district at 37.
De Assis Matthews
defined “herd immunity.”
“If enough people in a
population like a school are
immunized, there’s a pro-
tective bubble around kids
vulnerable to disease —
the kids who are medically
unable to be immunized,”
she said.
According to the CDC,
research has debunked anti-
vaxxer claims that immuni-
zation leads to autism. Nine
CDC-funded studies found
no link. A mercury-based
preservative called thimer-
osal was a major focus, but
no relationship between thi-
merosal and autism was
found. Thimerosal was
phased out for other reasons
by 2001.
“Immunization is the
very best and safest way to
protect children against vac-
cine-preventable diseases
such as whooping cough
and measles,” Setzer said.
“Immunization helps keep
our schools and community
safe and healthy.
For the most part, most
schools have healthy herd
immunity.
“It appears that the
non-vaccinated tend to clus-
ter in particular schools or
communities,” he said.
Like de Assis Matthews,
Setzer worries about stu-
dents with medical exemp-
tions, those who can’t be
vaccinated for health rea-
sons such as cancer. They
must rely on herd immu-
nity to stay safe. Some, he
said, describe healthy peo-
ple who choose not to vac-
cinate as “epidemiological
freeloaders.”
Setzer said parents who
are unsure about their chil-
dren’s immunization status
may call Umatilla County
Public Health (UCo) at 541-
278-5432 for help review-
ing records, and Wednesday
the Hermiston clinic will be
taking walk-ins so that par-
ents can get their child back
in the classroom right away.
“We’re all hands on
deck,” Setzer said.
Pharmacists can give
vaccinations to children,
aged 7 and older. Duron
said Hermiston School Dis-
trict hopes parents will get
their children immunized or
get their records updated as
soon as possible so that the
students don’t miss out on
educational opportunities.
For more information on
required vaccinations, go
to www.healthoregon.org/
imm.
———
Jade McDowell contrib-
uted to this report.
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