Unvaccinated students in attendance prom in Exeter, New Hampshire, were “numbered” with a sharpie and tracked throughout the evening, reported a New Hampshire parental rights advocate.
Granite Grok blog writer, Ann Marie Banfield, reported Rep Mellisa Litchfield (NH), who represents the Brentwood district, posted on Facebook that constituents informed her their unvaccinated students that attend the Exeter High School prom “had a number written on them in Sharpie” and were tracked throughout the evening.
Litchfield continued with some quotes from “angry” constituents:
If they were on the dance floor, they had to raise their hands after every three songs so their numbers could be recorded by other underclass students for contact tracing purposes. There’s even more to the story, but this alone is surprising to us. We truly feel they are literally branding our kids if they don’t get this experiential (sic) “emergency” approved vaccine …
Litchfield reported another constituent said:
They also left the list of student names (first and last) with the info on whether they were vaccinated or not on a table outside after the prom. I found it the next morning. This information should 1. Not have been shared, and 2. Should never be left where anyone can have access to it. I have a photo of the list.
“I find it absolutely unbelievable that ‘ ‘ and ‘ ‘ was allowed to treat the kids like prisoners in Nazi Germany,” another person told Litchfield. “Marking them, thus singling them out, and then having to raise their hands is beyond tolerable.”
“First, the school could be looking at lawsuits for violation of Hippa [HIPPA] rights,” the constituent continued. “They have no business asking for a vaccine card … last Thursday, masks were no longer required outside and if this is in effect it should not have mattered if they were vaccinated or not.”
“If anyone has any further information, I would very much appreciate it,” Litchfield posted. “There has been much talk at the State level regarding vaccination status and confidentiality.”
Banfield reported that a parent whose child attended the prom contacted her on social media. The parent said her child “was at this event and was ‘numbered’ with a sharpie because (child) was not vaccinated.”
The parent reported her child attended with a friend who was vaccinated, and the friend “was not numbered.”
The parent continued:
It was not communicated to us beforehand. The kids were told it was optional to provide a copy of their vaccine card. When they showed up at prom check-in, they were marked and had a number written on them in black Sharpie if they were not vaccinated (sic). Those that were vaccinated had a different color mark and no number assigned to them. Underclassmen were given the role of writing the numbers down on the dance floor. After every 3-4 dances, kids were asked to raise their hands so the underclassmen could record the numbers.
Banfield was told by the parent that students were required to show proof of vaccination to the class adviser at check-in; the students without proof were “numbered.”
According to Banfield, the parent reported “a list, with numbers associated to names,” that was intended to be used for contact tracing of students who were not vaccinated.
The parent said that if a student tested positive for COVID in the week ahead of the prom, all the “numbered kids will miss graduation and all their senior week activities per the school’s contact tracing policy.”
“It is not right that kids are feeling pressured from peers, school, and government to get vaccinated,” the parent posted. “Kids should not feel they need to get the vaccination or they will potentially ‘miss out on events. It is a personal choice and should remain that.”
“It has become a way to separate and cull out those that won’t follow along – it’s a scary, slippery slope, and I guess I hope that if attention is brought to it, people might think twice about whether we want to start down that slope or not,” the parent added.
Banfield wrote about the issue of medical confidentiality.
“It is the parents who send the school district vaccine information on their children,” she observed. “They are the ones who determine whether they want to share this information or not. These are medical records on students, and yet it appears as if that information was on display for everyone to see.”