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On March 12, 2019, attorney Michael Sussman, representing the parents of the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, expresses himself in front of the White Plains Federal Courthouse.
Tania Savayan, [email protected]

A federal judge today denied issuing a temporary injunction that would have allowed 44 unvaccinated children to return to school at the Green Meadow Waldorf School, citing "the unprecedented measles epidemic in Rockland County." ".

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A parent of a preschooler from the Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge is talking about a lawsuit against the Rockland County Health Department against an order banning children from not be vaccinated against measles in White Plains Federal Court on March 12, 2019. (Photo: Tania Savayan / The News Journal)

"The plaintiffs have not shown that the public interest was in favor of granting an injunction," US District Court Judge Vincent Briccetti told the court. Federal Court of White Plains.

After the decision, many parents in the courtroom kissed each other.

"Preventing my child from being with his class, his teacher, his class, has had a significant social and psychological impact," said one parent of a 4-year-old preschooler who refused to give his name. "It's confusing, given his young age, why he's not allowed on his campus," she said, her voice wavering.

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The judge's ruling was made during the court appearance of the parents' lawyer representing 44 students from the Chestnut Ridge School who filed a lawsuit against the Rockland Department of Health and its Commissioner challenging an order prohibiting unvaccinated children.

Parent and student names do not appear in the pursuit, which uses only initials.

"We have had success, but the case is not over," said Thomas Humbach, Rockland County Attorney, in a statement. "While no one rejoices that these children do not attend school, these orders worked, they helped prevent the measles outbreak from spreading to this school population."

The lawsuit says that the Commissioner's order, Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert, violates families' religious objections to vaccination and is superfluous, as these cases were largely confined to the island's Hasidic Jewish communities.

The federal complaint filed by 24 complainants indicates that during the measles outbreak that began last fall, no cases were reported among children excluded from the Chestnut Ridge School, their families or in the community of the community that surrounds it.

The judge did not set a later date for the hearing, which told parents' attorney, Michael Sussman, that he might be better able to succeed in a court of law. 39; State.

"It's a difficult situation and it worries me, but I do not have the authority to do it," said Briccetti.

Sussman replied, "There is a certain degree of steeple that exists with elected judges."

The longest measles epidemic

Rockland has had the longest epidemic in the state since the official elimination of measles in the United States in 2000, with a total of 145 cases reported since last October. Three other suspected cases are under investigation.

The epidemic, which mainly affected the Orthodox Jewish community of Spring Valley, Monsey and New Square, led Ruppert on Dec. 5 to impose an order to schools of ZIP codes 10952 and 10977 with vaccination rates less than 95% attend.

Although court documents filed by the state of Sussman, Green Meadow's students are "97% immune from all points of view," said the county's county law department, stating that the vaccination rate of the country's population is "100 percent immune to the disease." 39, school was about 33% when the order of December 5 was imposed. It then rose to about 56%.

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The exclusion – which includes Chestnut Ridge – ends when there are no new cases in this area for 21 days, but because of the continued increase in the number measles infections, the time to exclusion can be extended to 42 days.

Twitter: @ GabrielRom1

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