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A high school student under the age of 16 is now facing a dilemma after her plan to get vaccinated and return to face-to-face learning in just a few days was shot down by her father, who is anti-vaccine.The father is adamant that he won't allow his two children [a son and a daughter] to take the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine now being administered to children 12 years and older, even if it disrupts their education."We nuh support dat. Mi bun out dat. Mi not even want nobody ask mi 'bout dat. Mi not even wah hear dah argument deh. Mi have two yute inna school right now and mi tell dem seh if a that fi make dem go back a school, fi dem school days done which part dem deh. Mi nuh want that fi myself so mi cyaa go want that fi my yute. Mi nuh deh pon dem thing deh," the irate father told the Jamaica Observer last week."Mi tell my daughter say, if a the vaccine fi she go back a school, she affi go forget 'bout dat. Mi affi go lobby fi she certain way... mi affi go sign and mi nuh deh pon that. Sometimes if we don't stand for something, we fall for anything," he said.Minister of Education Fayval Williams last week announced that high school students will only return to face-to-face classes when their school achieves a 65 per cent vaccination rate or higher. Until then, all schools will begin classes on Monday, September 6, 2021 utilising the modalities that were in operation over the last school year.The father argued that Jamaicans are being hoodwinked into taking the vaccine and refuses to be a part of it."The vaccine thing is a hoax. This is not like a regular childhood vaccine weh we normally get and everybody know that. How yuh fi carry yuh yute dem go tek vaccine?" he asked.He added, however, that his daughter's school isn't forcing the students to take the jab, which he appreciates."The school is not forcing dem. Dem nuh supposed to do that. Who want to take it, take it. But I don't want to hear anything about vaccine," he said.Children's Advocate Diahann Gordon Harrison weighed in on the issue and told the Sunday Observer that if a child is not yet 16 they need parental consent for the vaccine."If the child is 16 and over though, there is legislation that we have that gives 16 year olds that right once they appreciate what the procedure involves and so forth. It gives them the right, in keeping with their age and maturity, to consent without parents being involved," she said."This is one of what you would call the additional vaccines, apart from the basic vaccines that all kids have to get to have immunisation cards up to date so they can be registered. The COVID-19 vaccine now, like some of the others, would be considered optional, so they don't form a part of that basic suite of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccines that everybody gets. So, it wouldn't be covered under that legally to say that it's a part of the core set of vaccines that you must get. So that's the dilemma," she continued.Gordon Harrison said we have to walk a "delicate line" because of the newness of the COVID-19 vaccine."... And the people who may not fully understand or appreciate the science behind it, they get so caught up with all of these other theories that people are flying out there," she said.Gordon Harrison further pointed to local doctors who have publicly denounced the vaccine, as one of the factors that demotivate people who were already sceptical."Some people, like the teachers, are saying 'if the doctors are not taking it why should we?' Saying these things publicly, it causes quite a lot of concern among our parents who may not know all the facts and they are scared."Just last week, the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network appealed to the Ministry of Health and Wellness to facilitate the vaccination of children 16 and older without parental consent.In addition, Christopher Townsend, attorney-at-law, told the Sunday Observer that the State has no say in a situation where a parent refuses to consent to the vaccination of their child under age 18, due to the fact that the COVID-19 vaccine isn't mandated by law."It has to do with the personal decision of the parents, as to what is it they want to subject their child to, or their children to. It is going to be one of the situations that we will face in the coming months. Certainly, mandatory vaccinations are not unusual in this atmosphere and not unusual in our education system," he stated."The (COVID-19) vaccine is not different. And so, I believe that the time will come when it is going to be a requirement for you to have to be vaccinated to attend school. It is going to be a worldwide requirement to travel and other things."The Convention on the Rights of the Child applies to children under 18. It recognises education as a legal right to every child on the basis of equal opportunity.Article 29 recognises the liberty of parents to choose the kind of education they want to give to their children and the liberty to establish and direct educational institutions, in conformity with minimum standards outlined by the State.Therefore, Townsend said, a parent preventing a child from being vaccinated, which in return prevents them from benefiting from face-to-face learning isn't a breach of the child's right to education."Not going to school in and of itself does not mean that you're unable to exercise your right to an education. We can educate you without you being in the general population of the school. COVID has taught us that we can educate you by way of a laptop. It is perhaps not the best education but it's education nonetheless. So your right to education, I do not believe will be seriously affected because that is not the only way to exercise that right," he explained.Further, Townsend said the question will now be how we treat people who believe their immune systems are sufficient to fight COVID-19 in its various forms."This is a question that humanity is now facing and we have to work out a way. The division that this disease is causing is going way beyond what was actually thought of. The philosophy surrounding it now, the vaccinated and the non-vaccinated, the us and them principle, are things that humanity has been dealing with for the longest time. The blacks, the whites, the what separates us, the what doesn't separate us. One other device to separate us will be the vaccinated and the non-vaccinated."