School & Health Dept Bully, Teen Commits Suicide.

Today Jaden and I attended a funeral.

Suicide happens when all hope is lost. We’re left to ask how, why, could this have been prevented, Can we learn from this and protect other students?

As you may know our son was excluded from school for 19 school days due to 3 cases of mumps. Our sons grades have been greatly impacted by this unjust exclusion. It’s caused unnecessary harm to him socially, emotionally and academically.

Our son had a friend that was a sophomore at his school. He had just turned 16. he too was excluded for 19 school days. I know his grades were suffering the same way my sons grades are suffering. For a high school student that has plans for certain colleges, bad grades are not an option. Now this friend of my son may have had other issues, grades and college might not be the only factor in his decision to take a gun to his head April 19th and end his life. But I do know, it was the final thing that pushed him to a breaking point. 

Exclusions harm high school students.

School exclusions hurt high school students more than anyone could have imagined. It causes such overwhelming stress and anxiety to these students. Who’s protecting them? The health department? The schools? I am worried for my own child. My son and every other child that got excluded is just as valuable as every other student that walks through those doors. A risky medical procedure shouldn’t be the defining point. I’ve been fighting this since January 24th. The health department and school districts knew that they were causing harm.

Every student that’s been excluded deserves special attention and Guidance to get back on track with school today! We don’t want to hear the sob story about teacher contracts. Or the health department and schools pointing the finger at each other anymore. Don’t wait for “policy change” stand up and do what’s right for these kids. This exclusion shouldn’t harm kids futures and goals, yet it is

The excluded kids who are back in school are now not only dealing with the hassle of trying to put their school careers back together, but facing the grief caused by the loss of one of their friends dying in a tragic manner.

Here are my public comments to the Spokane Health Board. I cried through the entire 3 mins nobody was laughing last Thursday.

My original intent in attending the meeting today was to correct the numerous misrepresentations in Dr. Lubers vaccine cheerleading session last month.

However, something has occurred that is much more important that I want to address with you. On April 19th, one of my son’s friends took a gun and shot himself in the head.

He explained in a letter why he felt that this was the only way to end his suffering. He said that the pressure of trying to keep his schoolwork up to the grades needed to gain entrance into his target college was too much to bear.

Teen suicide is disturbingly common, listed as the 2nd or 3rd cause of death, and school pressure is a huge part of that stress. Teens succumb to this pressure all the time.

He had the additional burden of being part of the useless Mumps exclusion, and was kept out of school for 19 class days. The schools failed him. I will be addressing them, too, but they claim they must follow the Health Department’s recommendations.

This board heard sincere, honest, direct testimony of the distress the exclusion was causing to exempt students and their families. The board also was informed that due to the nature of this outbreak there was no Public Health benefit to be achieved by excluding exempt students.

These children were under tremendous pressure with their schoolwork because the exclusion spanned finals week. On return they are expected to pass tests for which they were not fully prepared, on top of catching up assignments. Added to that they’re saddled with the threat that at any time another Mumps case could emerge and put them back out of school for several more weeks.

I know that my son would have been devastated if the exclusion had prevented him from playing baseball. His friend was a wrestler, the exclusion started during the season and must have been forced off the team, compounding the academic disappointments.

Make no mistake that the misery this boy experienced is intentional. The professional organizations our Health Officials belong to have written, adopted policy to discourage exemption use by making it as difficult as possible for a family to exercise their legal right to exempt.

 Exclusion is one of their most offensive tactics. Their strategy is to hold the student’s education hostage. They stigmatize, ostracize, and isolate exempting students, to harass and coerce them to abandon their Personal, Philosophical, or Religious objection and submit to the Health Department’s vaccine agenda.

It is sadly ironic that in pretending the exclusion was helping stop the spread of a near harmless infection, the Health Department and Education System potentially contributed to a suicide mortality, which is a real and legitimate threat to teens.

 Are School and Health Department personnel so myopically focused on vaccine compliance they overlooked this as a potential risk outcome to a vulnerable student? Where is the study to show that this a safe practice? Spokane Public Health Department is promoting exclusions of students when this is known to increase the risk of teen suicide.

 If this boy had not been excluded for a month it is entirely possible his stress level could have remained manageable, and he could have survived his sophomore year of High School. It would have just been a tough year, one he looked back at during Graduation and said, “It was touch and go there for a while, but I made it”.

 Instead, I will be attending his funeral Saturday. Shame on you for hijacking this outbreak to push your vaccine zealotry.

Rest in peace young man❤️

Jaclyn Gallion