Jeremy B. White reports at The Sacramento Bee that a state legislator from Fresno spoke to a rally
against a California vaccine mandate and likened the measure to internment camps.
Senate Bill 277 would make vaccination a condition of enrolling in private and public schools, which opponents have castigated for depriving children of an education. That argument temporarily derailed the bill in the Senate Education Committee and was featured prominently in Tuesday’s rally.
“I wouldn’t call it a concentration camp,” said Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, “but they’re suggesting (children) go some place other than public school.”
Later in his speech, Patterson said that he “thought we apologized for internment camps,” an apparent reference to the separation and confinement of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Asked after the rally to explain his comments, Patterson said it was a “bad choice of words” but reiterated that SB 277 is “excessively punitive.”
Breitbart News reports:
Californians against school vaccine bill SB 277, led by former State Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, are heading from southern California up to Sacramento in a brigade of buses to take a stand against the pending legislation.
SB 277, which mandates vaccination for public and private school children, is set for debate in the State Assembly’s Health Committee Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.
Donnelly told Breitbart News, “I’m proud to ride on one of the “Freedom Buses” headed to Sacramento–that was funded by grassroots activists both Republican and Democrat–to demonstrate effective opposition to a Government determined to take away the freedom of parents to choose what’s best for their kids.”
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article23590111.html#storylink=cpy
