School Parents Sue Rockland Over Measles Restrictions

Some 20 parents of children enrolled at the Green Meadow Waldorf School are suing Rockland County over its public health restrictions on schools with low vaccination rates. They'll be in court Tuesday.

The parents say the medical value of the measles-mumps-rubella vaccination is debatable, according to The Journal News. The parents in the lawsuit also said they had valid religious exemptions from vaccination, that the county was violating their constitutional rights, and that their children were traumatized by being kept from school.

"The case raises profound issues," their attorney, Michael Sussman, told Patch. "Parents are entitled to select private schools for their children. They are also allowed to seek and obtain, where warranted, religious exemptions. The plaintiffs have done both. Yet, their children have been excluded from school for more than three months. The school they attend has not experienced a single case of measles. We believe that state law forbid exclusions of students EXCEPT WHERE the school they attend has an outbreak of a communicable disease. That did not happen here. The exclusion order is without legal foundation and contravenes basic and fundamental rights. That led to this lawsuit and our request, to be heard tomorrow, to strike the exclusion order and let these children attend school again."

Rockland County Attorney Thomas Humbach said the county would fight the Green Meadows parents.

"These religious exemptions run the gamut from references to organized Christian doctrine to a generalized spirituality," he said. "As the case progresses, we expect several of the exemptions to be challenged, as not evincing a sincere religious belief against vaccination."

Rockland County officials began invoking state law on disease outbreaks back when there were 11 cases confirmed. County officials received authority from the New York State Health Department in October to require unvaccinated students to keep away from certain schools.

New York City health officials issued a similar order. A measles outbreak ongoing in Brooklyn has been exacerbated by parental defiance; 21 cases were recently reported connected to one yeshiva that had flouted the restriction order.

There have been 145 confirmed cases of measles in Rockland County and there were 133 confirmed cases of measles in Brooklyn and Queens as of March 5.

Most of the schools affected by Rockland County's order are yeshivas in the Ultra-Orthodox community, where the disease has been concentrated. Green Meadow is in the part of the county where the measles outbreak has been concentrated; however, Waldorf schools are not affiliated with any religion.

Rockland's order, which was revised to raise the vaccination compliance level, requires schools with vaccination rates under 95 percent to keep unvaccinated children from attending. Since the order was imposed, the county has lifted restrictions on more than 30 schools whose vaccination rates have met goals but more than 20 remained under the rules as of the middle of February.

Most of the cases in Rockland — 81 percent — have been in those 18 years of age and younger.

Rockland's measles outbreak is the longest in New York State since the disease was declared eradicated in the United States in 2000.

Here's Humbach's full statement:

On March 12, 2019, the Federal Court will hear argument in a case brought by the parents of
students attending the Green Meadow Waldorf School. The parents seek an injunction to terminate the order of the County of Rockland’s Commissioner of Health excluding unvaccinated children from attending certain schools in the County.

We intend to defend this matter vigorously on behalf of the Commissioner and to protect the public as a whole. In this country, individuals are free to make choices about their lives, however, those choices may have consequences.

This is first and foremost an issue of public health and safety. Measles is a highly contagious disease with dangerous complications, like pneumonia or encephalitis (swelling of the brain) and can also cause pregnant woman to give birth prematurely. The single best way to prevent measles is to be vaccinated. Protection of public health and prevention of further infections is the intent behind all of the actions taken and orders issued by the Department of Health.”

As the Supreme Court of the United States has held, the liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States to every person within its jurisdiction does not import an absolute right in each person to be, at all times and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint; and, the right to practice religion freely does not include liberty to expose the community or the child to communicable disease or the latter to ill health or death.

Since October 2018, there have been 145 reported cases of measles in the County Rockland, that is one of the largest outbreaks of this serious, even deadly, disease in decades.

In order to stem the tide of measles in the County, in consultation with epidemiolocal experts in the State Department of Health, the Commissioner has issued several orders containing gradually increasing restrictions. Orders issued on December 3, 2018, requires that all unvaccinated student be excluded from attendance at any school. The orders were sent to all schools in the 10952 and 10977 zip codes, that had not reached a 95% vaccination rate.

According to the order, the exclusion will end when there are no new cases in that area for 21 days. However, as a result of the continuing increase in the number of measles infections, the exclusion time may be increased to 42 days.

The Green Meadow Waldorf School, which is in Chestnut Ridge, is affected by this order. The parents of a number of children, however, disagree with the Commissioners efforts to stop the outbreak, claiming that their children are not at risk, and that the Commissioner’s order is unnecessary and an abuse of power.

These children presently attend school with religious exemptions to the vaccination requirement. These religious exemptions run the gamut from references to organized Christian doctrine to a generalized spirituality. As the case progresses, we expect several of the exemptions to be challenged, as not evincing a sincere religious belief against vaccination.

The Commissioner, Dr. Patricia Ruppert, has every legal right, under New York State’s Public Health Law and the County’s Sanitary Code, to take every necessary step to stop the outbreak of measles in this County.

SEE ALSO: Measles May Make You Vulnerable To Other Deadly Diseases