The vaccine does not provide complete or lifetime protection, nor does it necessarily help prevent ear infections. However, there is now a new vaccine available and intended for infants and children that, although it only protects against 7 different serotypes, provides much better immunity. See my pneumococcus page for more information. However, viral meningitis is a separate problem, and a common one at that. We can't treat viral meningitis either, but viral meningitis is usually less severe and causes less damage than bacterial meningitis.
Many commmon viruses can cause meningitis.
Reports in the newspapers on October 11 indicated that these were cases of pneumococcal meningitis, rather than meningococcal meningitis as first reported. Also, again according to news reports, each of the children with pneumococcal meningitis was infected with a different strain of pneumococcus. As always, talk to your child's doctor for the best possible information on what your child needs. I had a couple of inquiries from Rhode Island parents regarding the problem, and according to news reports Rhode Island doctors were deluged with phone calls. Publicly-available information does not give the serotype of the bacteria this student had.