Unionville-Chadds Ford School District Attempts to Delete Moral Vaccine Exemption

At the monthly meeting of the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District on August 15th public comment was allowed on the districts proposal to eliminate the philosophical exemption for vaccine requirements for school attendance.

This exemption is in the State’s Code under Title 28 Chapter 23 and states  “(b)  Religious exemption. Children need not be immunized if the parent, guardian or emancipated child objects in writing to the immunization on religious grounds or on the basis of a strong moral or ethical conviction similar to a religious belief.”

The meeting had an unusually high turn out noted by board president Jeff Hellrung.  Five residents spoke out against the changes.  One pointed out their grave disappointment that the Board was not going to follow the PA School Code.  Another parent suggested this was a tactic to keep parents and guardians in the dark about what their rights were governing childhood vaccinations.

Mr. Hellrung tried to assure parents that the policy of these exemptions would not change just the language being disseminated by the district.

It appears that the School Board’s legal counsel, attorney Mark Fitzgerald of the Fox Rothschild law firm, has presented information concerning differences in the PA Code that are not present in the language of the 1949 Act 14 statute.  Other than suggestions from a politically connected law firm that deals in school policy and school law, the School Board members did not indicate what material reason they brought this subject up for review.

Big Pharma has been investing significantly in lobbying efforts over the past ten years in states that have liberal exemption policies.  One attempt to limit exemptions in New Jersey in 2020 was defeated, helped in part by a very large protest outside the Trenton Statehouse lead by CHD’s founder Robert Kennedy Jr.

However, Connecticut’s religious exemption was lost in 2021 and New York removed its religious exemption and allowed school principals to veto any medical exemptions in 2019.  Could this collaboration between the Fox Rothschild law firm and the UCF School District be an attempt to trigger a lawsuit that might bring the philosophical exemption before a judge?