West Virginia Board of Education reinstates school vaccine policy
The state’s education board said that it “is reinstating its directive to county boards of education Not to accept religious exemptions to compulsory vaccination laws”
By
The West Virginia Board of Education has reinstated its school vaccine policy that excludes religious exemptions for students after a state Supreme Court ruling.
On Tuesday, the West Virginia Supreme Court issued a stay of Raleigh County Circuit Judge Michael Froble’s ruling last week in which he allowed students whose parents refused the state’s vaccination requirement on religious grounds to attend school and participate in sports, Fox News reported.
The state Supreme Court blocked Froble’s ruling pending resolution of appeals in the case.
The state’s education board said in a statement that it “is reinstating its directive to county boards of education not to accept religious exemptions to compulsory vaccination laws. This directive will be in effect until the Supreme Court issues further guidance.”
The board added that its priority is to ensure compliance with the state vaccine law “and safeguard the health and well-being of all students across West Virginia.”
Last week, the board suspended its vaccine mandate following Froble’s ruling, which stated that the state policy prohibiting parents from seeking religious exemptions violated the Equal Protection for Religion Act signed into law in 2023 by then-Gov. Jim Justice (R).
Earlier this year, Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order allowing religious exemptions for school vaccinations. However, in June, the board voted to instruct public schools to ignore the executive order and follow school vaccine requirements in state law.
The state Senate earlier this year approved legislation that would have allowed the religious exemptions, but the House of Delegates rejected it.
Two groups sued to stop the executive order, arguing that the state legislature, not the governor, has the authority to make such decisions.
Meanwhile, a group of parents sued the state and local boards of education, in addition to the Raleigh County schools superintendent.
Froble last month certified the case as a class action involving 570 families who had received religious exemptions in other parts of West Virginia. He said the class action also applies to parents who will seek religious exemptions to the school vaccinations in the future.
The judge also said that the total number of exemptions so far involved a small portion of the statewide student population and “would not meaningfully reduce vaccination rates or increase health risks.”
State law requires students to receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus, and whooping cough before attending school.
*********
(TLB) PUBLISHED THIS ARTICLE WITH PERMISSION OF JOHN SOLOMON, Just the News
Header featured image (edited) credit: Facebook. Emphasis added by (TLB)
••••
••••
Stay tuned…
••••
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
••••
Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.
••••
Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.
••••
Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Leave a Reply