If kids need to get covid-19 vaccines, they will not be getting them at Franklin Regional locations. The school board Monday voted to prohibit the use of the district’s property for vaccine clinics.

“We’re not a medical facility,” board member Deb Wohlin said. “Why would we want to take this on?”

This is a weak argument.

Schools have been tied to vaccines for generations. The polio that ravaged U.S. populations beginning with an epidemic in 1894 was all but eliminated thanks to vaccines developed in large part by Dr. Jonas Salk while at the University of Pittsburgh.

And how did that vaccine get from test tubes to children? Schools. There were trials in schools with the help of teachers and principals. There were clinics for free vaccines, many of which took place at the central locations that were able to host all of those children — the schools.

In Pennsylvania, schools require vaccines for everything from measles and mumps to chickenpox and whooping cough. The schools collect those records.

But vaccines aren’t where schools begin and end their intersection with medical care.

Schools have nurses who often have to have more certification than a nurse providing treatment in a long-term care facility or hospital. These certified school nurses can supervise noncertified nursing and other medical staff. Franklin Regional’s website lists three certified school nurses as well as three additional noncertified nurses.

The school district also complies with state law requiring physicals for kids entering the school system, as well as follow-ups in sixth and 11th grades. A school physician will provide the physical if necessary. The same goes for dental exams in kindergarten, first, third and seventh grades.

Kids have vision exams and height, weight and body mass index measurements annually and are checked six times in their school careers for hearing problems as well as twice for scoliosis.

This is a lot of medical responsibility, and Wohlin wasn’t wrong when she said that districts have “enough responsibility with unfunded mandates.” But saying a clinic cannot be held on school grounds is not the same thing as a demand that the district foot the bill and do the job.

Excela Health held covid-19 vaccination clinics at schools such as Penn-Trafford High School after the vaccine was approved for those 12 years and older. Hayden’s Pharmacy CEO Ed Christofano personally was wielding needles at Greensburg Salem Senior High. Hempfield Area School District did its clinic with Rite Aid.

Allowing the school space to be used for a public-service event is the kind of thing school districts do all the time. It doesn’t require the district to do anything more than it would for any other community event in which it was permitting the use but not steering the ship.

If a provider wants to use the school as a clinic site to best reach the students in question, allow it but leave the decision about whether students get the shot up to the parents. Don’t pretend that vaccines and health aren’t something schools deal with every single day.

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