Children's Health Defense By
It was 2019 when Rockland County, New York, children who were unvaccinated for measles and whose families sought a religious exemption for them were barred from school and public places, following a measles outbreak in the region that prompted county officials to issue an emergency order.
The students’ exclusion from school, and the county’s order, became the subjects of a lawsuit filed by 16 families.
The case was sent to a jury trial in November 2022, after the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided unanimously to overturn a lower court’s finding that Rockland County authorities were justified in issuing the emergency order.
On Feb. 1, just days before the jury trial was scheduled to begin, the families reached a $750,000 settlement with Rockland County, bringing the case to a conclusion.
On this week’s edition of “The Defender In-Depth” podcast Michael Sussman, the attorney for the families, joined Paul Jaffe and Maureen Satriano, two of the plaintiffs, to discuss the outcome and its implications, and share their thoughts on how the county’s actions adversely affected the children and their families.
‘This wasn’t really about public health’
Sussman told “The Defender In-Depth” that fundamental issues around religious freedom were at stake in this case — and would have taken center stage in a jury trial.
“I feel strongly that religious rights here were violated, and those involved did have the kind of animus which would have led a jury to that conclusion,” he said.
“I also feel equally strongly that New York state violated the rights of many people when it repealed the religious exemption,” he added, referring to New York’s 2019 repeal of religious exemptions for vaccination, which Rockland County officials lobbied for.
Satriano, who was a nurse at the Green Meadow Waldorf School where her and other plaintiffs’ children attended, said she “realized early on that this wasn’t really about public health and stopping a measles outbreak.”
“In the end, we ended up with 16, I would say, determined and courageous families who really deserve a lot of credit for sticking it out through a lot of stress,” Jaffe said…
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE… (childrenshealthdefense.org)
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