HOUSTON—About 40 percent of young children in Houston do not have the immunizations they need to start school.
To combat the problem, Congressman Gene Green hosted his 15th Annual Immunization Day event on Saturday.
The event provided three clinics where kids could get their shots for free.
Park Place Elementary, one of the clinics offering free shots, opened its doors at 9 a.m. and was scheduled to stay open until 1 p.m. However, in only an hour the clinic had already served 300 kids.
Because of the high turnout, staff members were forced to redirect a number of people to the two other clinics offering free shots.
Honesty Shannon was at Park Place on Saturday so her son Malachi could get his immunization shots. She knows her son won’t be able to attend school until he does.
"Not until his shots are updated and I won’t be able to do anything until the archive says something," said Honesty.
Honesty got to the free clinic on time, but she said the state’s inaccurate records showed her son only had one shot to date.
"He’s updated on all of his shots, all of them," Honesty said.
To make matters worse, Shannon is homeless.
"As soon as I got out of the military, I thought I was going to walk out [and find a job]," she said. "I can’t find anything."
It is those struggles, she said, that makes it more important for her son to get an education. But until Malachi get his immunizations, he won’t be allowed to go back to school.
