Florida vaccine mandates leave EHS parents wondering if they will somehow affect Kansas
BY MAX FISHER
Oct. 29, 2025
Florida recently announced they would be removing vaccine mandates on schools. Parents at EHS share their view on vaccines in schools. Design by Sarah Carman
Polio. Measles. Chickenpox. These are just some of the serious diseases that used to plague people before vaccines. However, now they may be making a comeback.
On Sept. 3, the state of Florida announced they would be removing vaccine mandates on schools, meaning that students would no longer be required to have vaccinations in order to attend school. During the press conference, Joseph Ladapo, the Surgeon General of Florida stated, “The Florida Department of Health in partnership with the Governor is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida. All of them. Every last one of them.”
According to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis, hepatitis A and B, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, polio, and meningitidis are the vaccines required for students in Goddard to take before entering the school system.
This recent decision has left parents at Eisenhower wondering if something similar could happen in Kansas.
“I could see it spreading to other states just because the push for individual freedoms if it were to spread,” said Daniele Baxa, EHS drama teacher and a mother of five.
Jennifer Jones is the school nurse at EHS, and a strong believer in vaccines.
“I think that vaccinations are very important, and they've got a long track record of being successful,” Jones said. “Everybody has the right to their own opinion and their own choices when it comes to their body but look hard at the evidence.”
Jones mentions that although Kansas requires kids to be vaccinated before coming to school, Goddard does not exclude.
“...So that means that you can still come to school if you are not vaccinated versus some of the Wichita schools where you have to stay home until all of your vaccinations have been received,” she said.
Michelle Cottingham is an English teacher at EHS and a mother of four.
“It’s going to affect children with compromised immune systems that cannot get the shot, because if someone that can contract it then they will obviously contract it and pass it to someone who is not able to get the vaccinations,” Cottingham said.
In “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel,” Greg Heffley mentions throughout the book his fear of chickenpox. Many kids in this day and age have little to no experience with this disease. These vaccine mandates could reintroduce diseases and viruses back into the common populous that had otherwise never had an interaction with them.
“I don't have scientific proof, but it's my understanding that contracting chickenpox … is much easier as a minor than on an adult,” Cottingham said.
An article by Rueben Westmaas from Discovery News stated that once someone gets chickenpox, they can never get it again as well the older you are the more threatening the virus will be to your body. This is why obtaining the vaccine early in life is so helpful, exposing your body to it while chickenpox is at its weakest state will allow you to completely skip over having to deal with the virus later in life where it could harm you without much restriction, unlike before.
Not just kids but people of all ages could be affected by this change in mandates. If they are immunocompromised, they could be especially prone to diseases that could spread to others easily. In an article from NBC, Erika Edwards discusses a measles outbreak in Upstate South Carolina. The outbreak was caused by a few unvaccinated students that spread the disease quicker than anyone could stop.
Overall, the decision could be beneficial for families with religious reasons to not obtain vaccines yet it is still helpful and favorable in the long run for kids and adults alike to take them.
