VIDALIA — The federal government has made a call to mobilize schools as vaccination centers in preparation for what is believed will be a worse-than-average flu season, but local school districts don’t have any plans to do so yet.

Concordia Parish Superintendent Loretta Blankenstein said the state department of education has not sent the district any information about plans to use Louisiana schools as vaccination hubs.

“We have received lots of information from the Department of Health and Hospitals, but that has been more geared toward what to do and how to handle the situation if you have a case of (the H1N1 virus or seasonal flu),” Blankenstein said.

If the schools were to be activated, Blankenstein said the district would have to take steps to ensure parental consent had been given for students to receive vaccines.

“I know that in using the schools you can reach a majority of the students, but I also have concerns because it can be a traumatic experience for children, and obviously we don’t want them to think of school as traumatic,” she said.

Before any vaccination exercise would go forward, Blankenstein said the district would want school board approval first.

“We would have to have all of the information necessary about who would give the shots, what is required and any possible side effects,” she said.

Natchez-Adams County School Superintendent Anthony Morris said the topic has been broached, but nothing conclusive has been decided.

“There has been conversation, but that is the extent of it,” he said.

If it does happen, an organization connected to the state-level branch of the Parent-Teacher Association may partner with the schools to administer the vaccines, Morris said.

The district is getting almost daily updates about both the seasonal flu and H1N1 virus, and Morris said the decision to activate the schools as vaccine centers will ultimately lie with the Mississippi Board of Education.