Credit: PA Internet News Service
A Neshaminy High School junior made headlines this week.
Nicholas Montero, 16, was featured by public media outlet WHYY for his journey to Philadelphia to get vaccinated for COVID-19 after his parents didn’t approve.
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Montero told the outlet he has a political and cultural divide with his parents and they didn’t share his desire to get vaccinated during the pandemic that has killed more than 1,640 Bucks Countians. He said his parents’ beliefs are based on social media postings.
The teenager traveled to Philadelphia to get vaccinated.
Montero went to the city because a regulation there allows kids over the age of 11 to get vaccinated.
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Outside of Philadelphia in the rest of Pennsylvania, minors need parental consent to get vaccinated.
Last November, Montero wrote an opinion piece in the Neshaminy High School newspaper, The Playwickian, advocating for a change to state law that would allow Pennsylvanians age 14 and older to make their own decisions on immunization. He has put support behind House Bill 1818.
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“While I strongly disagree with my parent’s decision not to let me get vaccinated, I sympathize with them. They’re victims of misinformation that has been pushed by these politicians and big influencers across the country,” he wrote.
“However, as a person now old enough to get behind the wheel of a car and as a person old enough to make my own health decisions in certain situations, I believe I should be able to get this vaccine. That’s why legislation to enable that change should become law,” Montero added.
Read the full story at WHYY.
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