Why am I voting No on 1 on March 3? Growing up in a family of eight, whatever my siblings brought home, we all got. Whooping cough? Check. Measles? Check. Mumps? Check. Chickenpox? Check. My parents couldn’t always afford to take us to the doctor, so I spent nights over a pot of steaming water to control my cough and days lying feverish in the bed I shared with my sister. My family would have been thrilled to receive vaccinations for these diseases so my parents wouldn’t have missed work and so we kids wouldn’t have suffered for weeks.

When I started teaching in 1974, I was thankful my students were able to get more immunizations than I could growing up. It kept our schools and community as healthy as possible. Towards the end of my career, I was dismayed to see the exemption rate for vaccines increase significantly. Did you know Maine now has the fourth highest rate of opt-outs nationally? High rates of immunity in schools help prevent the spread of illness throughout communities so that those who are unable to get vaccinated stay protected and kids don’t go through having these diseases like I did.

As a retired Maine teacher and grandmother of four, I believe children deserve the opportunity to attend school; this law doesn’t impede that. It does require that schools are safe from vaccine-preventable diseases so that all children can attend.

Please join me in voting No on 1 to protect Maine kids.

Linda Cote
Falmouth