Mom Sues West Virginia School District That Denied Daughter’s Religious Exemption Despite Governor’s Executive Order

A West Virginia mother filed a lawsuit this week seeking religious exemption from mandatory school vaccinations for her 4-year-old daughter, according to The Associated Press.

Miranda Guzman is suing the state and local boards of education and the county schools superintendent in the Circuit Court of Raleigh County, after the state school board announced it wouldn’t recognize the governor’s executive order allowing religious exemptions to school immunizations.

Guzman alleges her daughter is being denied her fundamental right to an education because of her mother’s religious beliefs. “School officials are essentially standing in the schoolhouse door defiantly interfering with controlling law and blocking [Guzman] from sending her child,” according to the filing.

Guzman’s exemption request stems from her faith-based objections to the use of fetal cells to develop vaccines, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office said. Guzman had obtained an exemption for her daughter under the governor’s executive order, but the Raleigh County Board of Education later denied it.