Rockland Health Dept. continued to ban unvaccinated students

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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 December 5, to force schools to have postal codes 10952 and 10977 with a vaccination rate of less than 95%, prevent unvaccinated children from going to school.

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.

Court documents filed by Green Meadow families, however, indicate that the 95% vaccination rate is "totally inconsistent with the number of GMWS families benefiting from genuine religious exemptions from vaccination, and that its implementation effectively excluded a lot of children their education. "

Green Meadow students are "97% immune to all accounts," according to court documents filed by attorney Michael Sussman.

The Rockland County Attorney, Thomas Humbach, said Monday that Ruppert "has full entitlement, under the New York State Public Health Act and the County Health Code, to take all necessary measures to curb the measles epidemic in this county ". He noted that the measures had been taken in consultation with epidemiological experts from state health departments.

Humbach stated that the United States Supreme Court and the Constitution believed that "the right to
to practice a religion freely does not include the freedom to expose the community or the child to a communicable disease or to the death of it. "

Waldorf schools are non-sectarian and non-denominational. But Sussman said that it was not necessary to attend a religious school to benefit from a religious exemption in the state of New York. The religious exemptions of the students, which were obtained before the exclusion order of the Ministry of Health. go from religion to Islam through the Christian and the tao, he said.

Green Meadow, who educates about 300 children from kindergarten to Grade 12, adheres to the teachings of Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy, which is "the belief that humanity has the wisdom to transform itself and transform the world." world, by its own spiritual development, "according to the Waldorf Schools Association of North America.

Humbach said that families' reasons for religious exemptions to vaccination "range from references to organized Christian doctrine to a generalized spirituality." As the case progresses, we expect that many of the exemptions will be challenged because they do not testify to a sincere religious belief against vaccination. "

The lawsuit says the exclusionary measure, which caused "irreparable harm," is nothing more than an excessive attempt to force parents with strong religious beliefs to vaccinate their children, the trial said.

She continues: "The children were sentenced to a difficult and anguished existence, not knowing when they will be able to go back to school".