A Cape Town school has come under fire after a video surfaced of learners being accompanied by teachers to go and get vaccinated without their parents’ consent.
In a video shared across Facebook, pupils from Stephen Road Primary School in Lotus River can be seen leaving the school to go to a venue to get their jabs.
According to the person who made the video, learners were told that they do not need their parent’s permission to get vaccinated.
South Africa’s Department of Health recently announced that children aged 12 to 17 can get the jab from October 20. The department also announced on Thursday, November 4, that there are now 184 222 kids vaccinated.
Ferlon Christians from the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) told Cape {town} Etc that he met with the school principal, the circuit manager and the sister involved on Wednesday, November 17.
According to Christians, the principal showed him the consent forms of those learners who were about to receive their jabs.
“Every child that was taken to this facility where they were about to get vaccinated, the consent forms were all there, however because of the commotion outside the school the principal decided that the learners should come back. She decided no child should be vaccinated,” Christians explained.
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Christians said the agreement that they had with the principal and circuit manager is that they will not vaccinate the children until they have received a directive from the Western Cape Education Department.
Meanwhile, Kerry Mauchline, a spokesperson for the Western Cape education department minister Debbie Schäfer explained to the Weekend Argus that 49 learners returned with consent forms signed by their parents after a school nurse approached the school to assist with arranging vaccinations for learners at a vaccination sit.
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Picture: Screenshot from video