New York Public School Rejects Parents’ Right to Religious Exemption from Vaccinations

According to Drew Zahn of World Net Daily, the Bayport-Blue Point Union Free School District in Bayport, New York, has denied a family’s right to declare an exemption from vaccinations due to religious reasons by simply stating that the parents, Ron and Rita Palma, are not religious enough.

“This determination,” wrote the school in 2006, “was made based upon your meeting with the school attorney and information which we received, which significantly calls into question your stated beliefs.”

The district interviewed the couple in 2006 and 2008, and then determined that their beliefs were not sincerely held. They cited a medical test–a vaccine titer test– that the Palmas had given their son as evidence that the family’s convictions are too inconsistent to be genuinely held.

Rita Palma states in her report at Age of Autism, “The Board of Education President, Jim March, said that since I had an ‘invasive’ Titers test done on my son, how could I truly object to vaccines?”

The school claimed the Palmas also misquoted the Bible in their defense. The Palmas appealed the school district’s decision to the state commissioner of public education but were denied again.

According to Rita Palma, she and her husband are not the only ones: “The policy of my school is to cross examine and deny. A dozen other couples have been tortured by the ‘Team Vaccine’  of Bayport-Blue Point School District. One parent was told to come down for a ‘few minutes’.  Three hours later, she left in tears — asked the same questions, over and over and over. Another parent has to ‘re-up’ the waiver every year—they have to tell the wise and powerful Board that yes, my beliefs are still the same as last year.”

For more information and access to video footage of the Bayport-Blue School District interrogation interviews, visit: Age of Autism: Witness a NY Religious “Sincerity Test” for Vaccine Exemption