KENAI, Alaska — A former elementary school nurse has pleaded guilty to forging a signature on a child’s immunization form, a practice her defense attorney says is probably done by most Alaska school nurses.
Donna Cotman, 65, a retired school nurse from Redoubt Elementary School in Soldotna, on Monday was sentenced to 80 hours of community service and fined $1,500 after pleading guilty to tampering with public records, a Class A misdemeanor.
State prosecutors dropped four felony counts in exchange for the plea, the Peninsula Clarion reported.
Defense attorney Peter Ehrhardt said Cotman’s forced retirement should have been penalty enough.
“It’s really unfortunate because the reality was she was trying to help people,” he said.
Soldotna police said a parent contacted Sgt. Duane Kant on April 17 about a forged signature on his child’s immunization exemption form.
Alaska law requires students to “be immunized against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella and Hepatitis A and B” unless they are exempt for medical or religious reasons.
The parent said a religious exemption form had been signed under his wife’s name and that indicated his daughter was missing her Hepatitis A and B shot. The girl’s mother had not signed such an exemption form and that the girl had received both vaccinations, the parent said.
A police and school district investigation of 26 student forms concluded that Cotman had destroyed the original immunization document for the girl and forged signatures on four documents.
Cotman was a school district employee from 1975 until she agreed to retire. She caused no injury or received any financial gain, said Ehrhardt, her attorney. Cotman filled out school forms after children’s parents failed to do so in time, Ehrhardt said.
“I would guess that 99.9 percent of all school district nurses in the state have done this,” he said. “The prosecution of this is stupid because it makes it more difficult for the school district to manage kids.”
District Court Judge Dan Ogg said the court would suspend imposition of sentence if Cotman paid her fine within 30 days and completed 80 hours of community service by August.
Cotman had no comment after the plea hearing.
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