Charleston, W.Va. (AP) – A woman in West Virginia filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in which she applied for a religious liberation from the necessary school vaccinations for her little child.
Miranda Guzman claims that the state’s vaccination mandate violates a law of 2023 in West Virginia, which the government determines that the government would not be able to essentially burden the constitutional law of a person on religious freedom, unless this is essential to improve a convincing state interest. Guzman sued the state and local educational authorities and the superintendent of the County School on the Raleigh County Circuit Court.
West Virginia was only part of a handful of states that only enabled medical exceptions to school vaccinations when the Republican governor Patrick Morrisey gave an executive order in January that allowed religious exceptions. However, the State Board of Education voted this month to lead public schools in order to ignore the executive regulation and instead to follow many years of demands on the school vaccine that are determined in state law.
In addition, two groups sued the governor’s arrangement and said that the legislator, not the governor, has the authority to make such decisions.
Guzman received a religious liberation for the vaccination mandate of the State Ministry of Health and wrote down her child for the school year 2025-26 at primary school. But on June 17, Guzman received an e -mail from the Raleigh County School Superintendent, who calls the certificate back, as the lawsuit emerges.
Guzman’s lawyers said “the uncomplicated legal problem” in the lawsuit was whether the enforcement of the state vaccine mandate violates the law on the same protection for religion of 2023.
The spokesman for the West Virginia Board of Education, Christy Day, moved from the board on June 12 that his intention was to “do the best” for pupils, educators and school services for public school. “This also includes that the most important steps of the protection of the school community could arise from the actual risk of a legal dispute of the legal dispute, which could result from the non -compliance of the vaccination laws,” the previous explanation said.
A telephone message that the Serena Starcher, Serena Starcher, was not returned immediately.
The school vaccination policy in West Virginia has long been announced by medical experts as one of the greatest protection of the country for children. According to state law, children must receive vaccines for chickenpox, hepatitis B, measles, meningitis, mumps, diphtheria, polio, rubella, tetanus and whooping cough before starting school.
Morrisey, who is not a party of the lawsuit, held a press conference in Beckley on Tuesday to support Guzman.
“This is not about whether parents should vaccinate their children or not,” said Morrisey. “This is about standing for freedom of religion.”
At least 30 states have religious freedom laws, including one that was signed by Georgia’s governor in April. According to the law on restoring the Federal Religion, the laws are modeled, which was signed in 1993 by the then President Bill Clinton, which enables federal regulations that affect religious beliefs.
