There could be many reasons why only 36 percent of McMinnville School District students showed up at school with parental permission slips to get H1N1 flu vaccinations. We just hope it wasn’t because parents are refusing to give permission for their children to be inoculated based on talk-show scare tactics.

Children are among the most vulnerable of populations in the spread of H1N1, especially those in group settings such as classrooms. In spite of the plethora of information in the news about the swine flu, many families still have questions.

It doesn’t help that some bloggers and talk-show personalities are questioning the safety of vaccinations. That’s irresponsible in light of clear evidence to the contrary.

In fact, according to County Health Officer Dr. Robert Moore, M.D., the shots are quite safe. He agreed that no vaccination can be relied on 100 percent, but his assessment is backed up by national reports that almost no serious side effects have arisen after tens of millions of vaccinations.

As of mid-week, students at the two middle schools and two elementary schools in the district had been offered vaccinations. Parents have been sent many updates about the H1N1 strain of flu, and the district’s website has complete information on its homepage.

However, only one-third of parents returned signed permission slips to school officials.

We can guess that, perhaps, some of those little pieces of paper didn’t even make it out of students’ backpacks and into parents’ hands. Also, we know that many parents may have had questions about the vaccine and wanted to talk to health care providers before agreeing to the shots.

Still, that 36 percent number is distressingly low. Missing the chance to have children inoculated at school means that parents will need to make a special trip to the health department or to their local doctor’s office or clinic. And, because of the slow pace of vaccination delivery to those locations, it’s not guaranteed to be available when the parents and their children have time to visit the clinics.

Officials say that to effectively protect a community and slow the rate of infection, 60 to 70 percent of the population should receive flu shots. At 36 percent, we have a long way to go.

We encourage parents to make sure their kids are protected against H1N1. It’s the responsible thing to do.