Grand Prairie ISD nurses say the district is asking them to go against the state

GRAND PRAIRIE (CBSNewsTexas.com) - Back on Sept. 7 and 8 of this school year, four Grand Prairie ISD nurses say two emails from administrators asked them to ignore state laws and put students at risk in what they believe was an attempt to increase the district budget.

Several nurses agreed to share their concerns, on the conditions that we conceal their identities to protect them from possible retaliation.

"Unbelievable. It was a big slap in our face," one nurse said. "It's unethical. It's immoral. We felt like we were being attacked."

CBS News Texas has copies of the two emails, confirmed authentic through the district.

The first email came on Sept. 7, from Executive Director of Information Services  Bill Young. It states, in part: "Do not withdraw any student for being out of compliance with vaccines."

A second email came a day later from Associate Superintendent Traci Davis that similarly states: "We're not unenrolling or excluding students due to immunizations."

"We were feeling like our licenses were at stake, because we were being asked to do something that's not part of the Texas code," the first nurse continued.

The Texas Code the nurse is referring to is the Texas Administrative Code which outlines state law. It says "a student must show acceptable evidence of vaccination prior to entry or start of school." That's unless the student has a valid exemption through medicinal, or religious reasons, though, or, if they're provisionally enrolled. 

• More information on exemptions can be found here.

The nurses' claim following these rules has never been a problem, until this year.

"The district is not abiding by those laws," a second nurse said. "They are allowing the kids to come in, basically breaking the laws but they're receiving the funding for the kids who are not in compliance for state law."

We asked the nurses, "why?"

"They actually said, 'You know, when we have an empty seat, that's money we're missing out on,'" the second nurse continued.

Data CBS News Texas received from the nurses shows that by the second week of school, the Grand Prairie ISD had almost 2,000 kids unvaccinated attending class.

That's 7.5% of the student body.

The nurses told us, not only is it a health hazard to the unvaccinated student, but to the immunocompromised ones as well.

The nurses felt uncomfortable letting it slide, and even more uncomfortable about the line from the email where the district acknowledged students were, "out of compliance."

The nurses believed it was wrong and wanted that in writing.

"We want something in writing that says, 'You've been notified,'" the first nurse said.

They say a letter was written by their director and was sent out to principals of each campus. The letter outlined state law and offered a nurse recommendation of unenrolling unvaccinated children.

"But then [admin] emailed all the principals and told them not to sign," the first nurse continued.

With nothing in ink, the nurses got to signing themselves.

"Here we are...we need to protect our licenses," a third nurse said. "So, that's when we filed a Safe Harbor, to protect our licenses."

Though the district said it doesn't legally apply to them, it does to the Texas Board of Nursing.

A Safe Harbor is a document that protects nurses from losing their licenses when they find themselves in possible violation of nursing practice.

They say almost every nurse in the district signed.

The nurses say, they since felt like they were punished. We asked, "why?"

"Yes. Every day," the first nurse replied. "Because they give us more work to do and we don't have time to actually do the things that we're supposed to do."

Each Friday, the nurses say they were asked to check in with unvaccinated students, update numbers and report to higher ups. The immunization numbers did go up, but it took months.

By October, the district said 98% of students were vaccinated.

"If they would've just followed the law from the get-go, they would have had compliance within two weeks," the first nurse continued.

We were declined for an interview with district staff or Superintendent Linda Ellis. We did, however, get a series of statements from the Grand Prairie ISD.

When CBS News Texas asked for comment on possibly breaking the law, the district responded in part, "Herd immunity is reached when 95% of the population is vaccinated."

However, CBS News Texas couldn't find anything in law that mentions herd immunity.

Even so, according to the nurses' data, if by the second week of school 7.5% of students were unvaccinated, only 92.5% were vaccinated, which is still beneath that threshold.

We wanted to know what the numbers were two weeks earlier, on the first day of school.

The district replied, "There is no way to know how many students are vaccinated fully or on a path to compliance on the first day of school, because nurses have not yet had the opportunity to review the files of every student to verify immunization status." 

But the nurses say they begin looking at those numbers in April or May.

After conflicting information from the district and the nurses, the Grand Prairie ISD provided us with one final statement telling CBS News Texas, that they have begun excluding children who are unvaccinated asking them to stay home until they received immunizations and can return to school.

To their knowledge, the nurses said that exclusion began in mid-October.

We asked if the nurses have considered leaving their jobs.

"Yes, it's a day by day," the second nurse said. 

"And it's not just us," the first nurse added. "You've got tons of nurses and there's a possibility they won't come back next year."

Since our interview in mid-October, one nurse has already left and the rest said they're unlikely to return next year.

We reached out to both the Texas Department of State Health Services, as well as the Texas Education Agency.

Texas DSHS sets the standards for immunizations in Texas, though TEA maintains enforcement authority and reserves the right to investigate.

As of last check, the TEA said they'd not received any formal complaints and are not investigating.

But the nurses say they do plan to file some.