Queensland anti-vaccine science teacher to teach students about immunisation?

Overnight an anti-vaccinationist exploded on the Facebook page of NSW Greens MLC John Kaye. Mr Kaye has been strident in his opposition to the anti-vaccine movement, and the danger they pose to our children. And, it is wholly welcome that a member of parliament is taking a strong stand:

The NSW State government has taken action against one of the most disgraceful sources of misinformation, the Australian Vaccination Network.

However there are still far too many parents falling prey to absurd and disproven voodoo claims and conspiracy theories.

Anti-vaccination campaigner, Anna Stancombe, a page administrator of the embarrassingly inept and censorious anti-vaccination Facebook page, Vaccination Education Australia, decided enough was enough. Calling the troops from VEA page, she took her rage to Mr Kaye’s page:

This rant is mostly a copypaste from her VEA rant

This rant is mostly a copypaste from her VEA rant

Stancombe is no stranger to the anti-vaccination debate. On November 30 2012, she appeared in the Moreton Bay Quest. The article  covered the Science of Immunisation booklet, released by the Australian Academy of Science. The newspaper interviewed two anti-vaccination campaigners, one of whom stated proudly of her negative effect on the community’s immunisation uptake, “I talk big and loud.” Well done. Well done.

Stancombe even lent her face to the article:

dmca stancombe photo removed

Edit April 24 1013: to view the publicly available, full-size image of Anna-Marie Stancombe, click:

               HERE

Edit August 9 2015: publicly available Facebook image of Anna Stancombe/Anna Patel:

Stancombe 73 public Facebook image Patel

Image courtesy Facebook

Further information on the appalling 2011 behaviour of Stancombe/Patel can be viewed on the Ripoff Report website,  in which it is documented that Stancombe/Patel attempted to defraud an airline of damages for a baby stroller. When a baby store proprietor would not go along with her fraud she attacked him and accused him of being a paedophile, along with the website administrator of the Ripoff Report website. Collection of Ripoff Report posts on Stancombe/Patel also found here.

_______________________________________

As many people follow Mr Kaye’s Facebook page, Stancombe’s ranting post was noticed. And, seeing the hypocrisy that Stancombe was posting there, others took her to task, given her paucity of evidence and adherence to the banhammer on her own page. Stancombe reacted as we would expect from a cornered rat: she furiously blocked people; called people stalkers, nutjobs and psychopaths; equated a commenter with the Westboro Baptist Church (no one can work out why); invoked her credentials; and, reported people when they called her out on her previous callousness of spreading anti-vaccination influenza misinformation on a memorial thread for a woman who died from influenza. Seriously, that sort of behaviour is usually reserved for the likes of Erwin Alber.

Anti-vaccinationists are cowards and hypocrites.

Anti-vaccinationists are cowards and hypocrites.

She never did respond to my request to provide some of her immunisation information. She just reported the comment. Seriously. She really did that.

Here is a list of Stancombe’s comments. She thinks we can’t see them any more, for some reason. Bear with me. The most important one is coming:

Stancombe 5 Kaye thread 2Stancombe 6 Kaye thread science degreeStancombe 7 Kaye thread 3Stancombe 8 Kaye thread Sian like WestboroStancombe 9 Kaye thread psychopathsWhich brings me back to the title of this post. Stancombe is a teacher in the Queensland education system. As she has said above, she teaches biology, maths, and science. What I would like Education Queensland to pay particular attention to is this comment from Stancombe:

Like I said not going to entertain nut jobs that spew hate. You can all hate together I have school tomorrow to teach all about the pros and cons of vaccination I win

This anti-vaccinationist is going to teach kids, in one of our schools, about immunisation, and she is going to do it with spite.

This anti-vaccinationist is going to teach kids, in one of our schools, about immunisation; and she is going to do it with spite.

I certainly hope that Stancombe’s use of the education system to spread her vicious anti-vaccine message will make its way to the Queensland Education Minister, the Hon John-Paul Langbroek MP. He can be contacted here: Education@ministerial.qld.gov.au.

And one would think that Queensland Health Minister, the Hon Lawrence Springborg MP, would also be interested in this teacher. He can be contacted here: Health@ministerial.qld.gov.au.

It might also be worth an email to the Queensland College of Teachers. They can be contacted here.

Please, let them know how you feel about anti-vaccination zealots spreading their misinformation to our children, to the detriment of public health. Whether they are nurses, or teachers, these people need to be drummed out of our public institutions. Especially when they use their positions, and credentials, to spread anti-science messages which can affect the health of our community.

About reasonable hank

I'm reasonable, mostly.
This entry was posted in anti-vaccination dishonesty, australian vaccination network, hypocrisy, Immunisation, stop the australian vaccination network and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

20 Responses to Queensland anti-vaccine science teacher to teach students about immunisation?

  1. Gary Kelk says:

    Thanks for those very useful contacts.

  2. Debbie says:

    Oh crap! And here was I worried about them trying to teach religion in our schools.

    Thanks for the links.

  3. Paul Jones says:

    I followed that Facebook thread – Anna Stancombe is the worst kind of shouty, hysterical antivax troll. Her inability to comprehend basic communication makes me doubt she is really a teacher. If so, Queensland, why do you let people like this anywhere near our children? Do your duty and sack her immediately – she is basically gloating (“I win”) that she is going to use her position of authority to spread an anti-public health message to her students. What next? “Safe sex is a scam, kids, you don’t need condoms to prevent disease”!

    • Bron says:

      Sadly, she is registered in QLD as a teacher. I don’t know if she works there or not though. I think that all career choices come with responsibility, and those who teach our children most certainly shouldn’t not be on facebook, using that the of language and making the type of comments that she did. If she wants to do that, she should choose a different profession and given she is “wealthy”, she has that opportunity.

  4. littlepowder says:

    Anna Stancombe claimed her reason for haranguing John Kaye MLC was that she just wants to hear “both sides of the argument”. Looks as if she doesn’t like her hypocrisy exposed.
    She has made several false complaints of harassment to Facebook and had these and other comments removed. In future her critics need to avoid the respectful use of this harridan’s name to avoid spurious reporting.

    WE HAVE REMOVED CONTENT YOU POSTED
    “Ms Stancombe, does the Facebook page that you manage look at both sides or are dissenting comments deleted and their posters banned? Here is an anti-fluoride post from your own conspiracist page: Of the 7 comments 4 have been deleted and only the 3 from VEA remain. Looks like only one side of the argument to me.
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=129167147228507&set=a.120902081388347.35283.115283271950228&type=1

    WE HAVE REMOVED CONTENT YOU POSTED
    “in the interests of fairness here is a post that still has some dissenting comments, although it did start out with 15 comments and now only 5 remain. Might be something to do with the subject matter. Are you proud to be an admin of “Vaccination Education Australia” Ms Stancombe?
    https://www.facebook.com/VaccinationEducationAustralia/posts/280083465430526

  5. email forwarded:

    https://reasonablehank.com/2013/04/19/queensland-anti-vaccine-science-teacher-to-teach-students-about-immunisation/

    http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/moreton/bid-to-boost-vaccination-rates-in-moreton-bay-region/story-fn8m0yu3-1226526964271

    Please take a look at these two articles.

    There is a woman who is a prolific anti vaccinationist on Facebook called Anna Stancome. Now I appreciate that people have a right to their own opinions, and have a right to be voicing them in public, regardless of how wrong they are. What I don’t believe that they do have, is a right to make comments such as:

    Anna Stancombe: Like I said not going to entertain nut jobs that spew hate. You can all hate together I have school tomorrow to teach all about the pros and cons of vaccination 🙂 I win

    This infers that she is using a position as a teacher to ply her anti vaccination agenda. In addition to that, given the level of spite and vitriol that we see spew forth from this woman on the Internet on the subject of vaccination, I would suggest that if she is indeed a teacher, she should not be. Assuming the claim of being a teacher is accurate, do the parents who’s children she teaches knows what she does and says on the Internet?

    In addition to her inappropriate Behaviour on the Internet, and her very public claims of “winning” by teaching children about anti vaccination, the issue of vaccination is one where the anti vaccination side had no basis in fact. Having an opinion on something that goes against science and the evidence is fine for most people .. But not for a teacher. One expectation we have of our teachers is that they be open minded and evidence based. This woman is neither.

    I would request that an investigation occur and if she is a teacher as she claims, her Facebook (and other) behaviours need to be investigated and quite frankly, if she is a teacher she needs to be removed from teaching immediately.

  6. Sian Morton says:

    Anna Stancombe, for the record I am neither a religious psychopath or a stalker. I despise the Westboro Baptist Church with the very core of my being.

    You, Madam, need to learn to read. And think.

  7. Sian Morton says:

    Addit: It seems that Anna Stancombe has had second thoughts about her nasty and ill-considered posts. She has deleted her original thread, with all its associated offensive comments, and freshly reposted her original comment.

    Trying to wipe the slate clean? It doesn’t work like that, Anna.

  8. A person is not suitable to teach if the person:

    behaves in a way that does not satisfy a standard of behaviour generally expected of a teacher; or

    otherwise behaves in a disgraceful or improper way that shows the person is unfit to be granted registration or permission to teach.

    (http://www.qct.edu.au/PDF/PCU/Complaints/FORMCOMPLAINT.pdf)

  9. Martin says:

    I made the observation that

    >>
    Ms Stancombe wants to tutor others in English, but doesn’t know what stalking means. Ms Stancombe teaches science, but then follows anti science Facebook cranks. Ms Stancombe complains about not getting both sides of the story, then participates on Facebook pages that delete all dissenting comments.

    I wonder if Ms Stancombe knows what irony means
    >>

    For this comment Anna got me banned from Facebook for 24 hours.

    She can call us nutjobs, and say we spew hate. Gets upset when I say she is ironic.

    Which I suppose makes it doubly ironic.

  10. Pingback: Queensland teacher boasts anti-vax agenda | Gladly, the Cross-Eyed Bear

  11. Mike says:

    Are teachers who clearly have such debilitating psychological “issues” really allowed to teach kids at a State school?

  12. sarndra says:

    I have also been blocked. I commented as a RN who has been immunising for many years & who has also nursed babies & children suffering from Whooping Cough & the horrendous late effects of Measles. She obviously has a problem being objective about research. It is her way or no way.

    • Bron says:

      You are correct Sarndra, the anti vaccination premise requires that the science and the effects of vaccine preventable diseases be hidden from view to appear valid, so remove comments they do .. constantly. Reporting posts is also a habit of the anti vaxers, they can’t answer the science with fact, it’s easier to get the science removed. Bit like shoving their heads in the ground and singing lalalala.

  13. Pingback: Tasha David: just a “parent” who does not vaccinate? | reasonablehank

  14. Pingback: Anti-vaccinationists attack the parents and the memorial page of a baby boy | reasonablehank

  15. Pingback: The mobbing of Riley Hughes’ family by anti-vaccination thugs | reasonablehank

  16. Pingback: Qld antivax activist confirms she and her friends all commit Centrelink benefits rort | reasonablehank

  17. Pingback: Is a notorious Queensland antivaxer obtaining GoFundMe donations via deception and defamation? | reasonable hank

Leave a Reply