When seeing her best friend Nick on the playground during recess, she noticed something different about him."Nick, what happened? Why do you have a band-aid on your arm?" she asked Nick.

"My mom and dad made me get a shot yesterday" Nick responded.

"Why did they make you get that?"

"It was to protect me from something called the measles? I just know it hurt!" Nick said.

"Well, at least you're protected!" she replied.

"Ha! My parents didn't make me get that!" Joe yelled as he walked over to the main group of friends.

"Well why is that?" Maria asked; she then adjusted her bright pink beanie on her head.

"Because my parents don't believe in vaccines. They not only believe it doesn't work, but makes you worse. And hey, I'm not complaining" Joe responded.

"What do you mean?" Nicked asked him.

"I mean that have you read the potential side effects for these shots? My parents told me that the side effects were worse than the sicknesses themselves"

"But they protect you from spreading diseases to us as well" Nick replied.

"I would rather contract the disease and build a stronger immune system because of it than risk the side effects of the vaccine" Joe stated.

"So, you would rather risk getting the measles and infecting us all, rather than just taking the vaccine for it?" Sam asked.

"Yes, it's my body and my rights. Anyway, Maria, don't you not have to get vaccinated?"

"That's different" Maria replied.

"Well, I don't see how it is different. I mean, you don't do vaccines because of the side effects either" Joe said.

"That's because of my chemotherapy and cancer treatments! I haven't been vaccinated for diseases like the measles because they might mess with my medications!"

"Yeah well…" Joe attempted to say, but was cut off.

"But if I didn't have cancer, nor be going through these treatments, I would have had my vaccines taken care of! Don't you know how much danger you and your parents are putting us through? If you got sick and had the measles, you do realize that we would be one of the first exposed to the disease. So please, talk to your parents again" Maria explained.

"And at least you can afford to get these vaccines!" Michael said. He had just arrived back with a tray of food that he brought from the school cafeteria.

"Do you know that I haven't been able to be vaccinated because my family could not afford it. And do you think that I want to remain unprotected from diseases like the measles? I would love to be able to not worry about getting sick or contracting different diseases! But, because I cannot get the vaccine due to my family's situation, I not only must be careful, but am also very vulnerable as well. So yeah, talk to your parents again, and get your vaccines. And saying things like "they won't work", or "I don't believe in them", if we all did that, then diseases like the measles, which are curable, would spread once more. So, please do your best to get your vaccinations" Michael explained.

"I'll see what I can do" Joe replied, and walked away from the tables, towards the playground.

After all of the children on the playground played for about 15-20 minutes, all of them went insides, and had forgotten to wash their hands. Unfortunately, Joe started coughing and developing fever symptoms the next morning; and a couple of days later found white spots in his mouth. Despite this, his parents sent him to school anyway; and pretty soon, more and more kids began to cough, and develop similar symptoms.

Further Readings:

8 Reasons Parents Don't Vaccinate (And Why They Should)

Rates of unvaccinated and exempted children on the rise, says CDC

Teen gets vaccinated despite parents' concerns: 'I was doing it for my safety and the safety of others'

Why Parents Aren't Vaccinating Their Kids, According to New Study