Mom, Teen Sue School That Refused to Grant Hep B Vaccine Medical Exemption
A mother and her teenage daughter are suing a New York school district for denying the teen a medical exemption for the third Hepatitis B (Hep B) shot after seven different doctors and medical practitioners said the teen shouldn’t get the vaccine due to her serious medical conditions.
Even a walk-in clinic at a pharmacy refused to vaccinate 16-year-old “Sarah Doe” because of her obviously compromised health when the teen tried to get vaccinated on her own, and against medical advice, so she could return to school.
Sarah and her mother, “Jane Doe,” allege that in addition to denying the 16-year-old reasonable accommodation, school officials have harassed, humiliated and harmed her. The normally happy and resilient girl is now so depressed she spends most of the day in bed and is falling behind in school.
The lawsuit, filed Monday against the Oceanside Union Free School District, its superintendent Dr. Phyllis Harrington and district physician Dr. Anthony Donatelli, alleges that by denying Sarah medical accommodation, the district is violating the New York State Human Rights Law, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Sarah’s state and constitutional rights.
Children’s Health Defense is funding the lawsuit.
“Oceanside’s denial of Sarah Doe’s medical exemption — despite warnings from multiple doctors and even a walk-in clinic refusing to vaccinate her due to her life-threatening conditions — is beyond outrageous,” plaintiffs’ attorney Sujata Gibson told The Defender.
“It’s a blatant disregard for her health and rights, reflecting a shocking crisis in how school districts are blocking valid medical exemptions, forcing families to choose between their child’s safety and education,” Gibson added.
On April 21, the parties in the lawsuit will attend an emergency court appearance, where the court will decide whether Sarah can return to school for the final quarter of the year while the case proceeds.
Gibson argues that allowing her to return to school for the final quarter “is critical to halt Sarah’s escalating crisis and prevent irreparable educational, psychological, and physical harm.”
Teen’s health deteriorated after second Hep B shot
In 2009, Sarah and one of her siblings had severe reactions to vaccination. Her mother, a devout Catholic, felt that through prayer she received guidance to stop vaccinating her children.
Until 2019, Sarah had a religious accommodation, exempting her from vaccine requirements.
However, when New York repealed its religious exemption, Sarah was forced to take an “aggressive catch-up schedule of eighteen doses” of the vaccines she had not yet received, including two doses of the Hep B vaccine in quick succession.
After the second dose, Sarah’s health deteriorated rapidly. She experienced intense pain throughout her body, rashes, migraines and other conditions and was unable to attend school.
She was diagnosed with acquired von Willebrand’s disease — a rare bleeding disorder — among other conditions, and acute autoimmune hypersensitivity reaction.
Both diagnoses are recognized adverse reactions to the Hep B vaccine and contraindications to further doses. Von Willebrand’s disease would also put Sarah at higher risk if she were to develop other vaccine adverse reactions, such as thrombocytopenia, according to the complaint.
Sarah regularly took allergy medications for the rashes, but they eventually stopped working. She continues to have abnormal blood work, showing that she has a mycoplasma infection, Lyme disease and other issues.
Sarah and her mother moved to the Oceanside school district at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, when they moved in to care for Sarah’s grandparents, and because they were experiencing economic hardship. Their house in her previous school district was in foreclosure and had to be sold.
Other than the third Hep B shot, Sarah is up to date on all vaccinations. In lieu of the third shot, the school allowed her to submit titers, which are evidence of antibodies.
However, shortly after the 2024 school year began, the school nurse noticed her titers were low and informed her she would need to get vaccinated or get a medical exemption by the end of September 2024.
Jane submitted a medical exemption request for the third Hep B vaccine on Sarah’s behalf with certification from a state-licensed doctor who is board-certified in immunology, but the school denied the request. School officials provided no explanation and wouldn’t allow Sarah’s doctor to speak with Donatelli.
Even after their family nurse practitioner also certified that Sarah shouldn’t get vaccinated, the school denied her request.
Desperate to go to school and celebrate Halloween with her friends, and to play on the varsity flag football team where she was a star player, Sarah took herself to a vaccine clinic at a drugstore. They refused to give her the Hep B shot because of her health condition.
Her father then took her to another doctor to try to get her vaccinated and those doctors also refused to give her the shot because of her rash and fever. They deemed her “ineligible” for the shot.
After that, her mother got yet another doctor to write a medical exemption, but the school again refused to honor it.
Jane scheduled Sarah for an appointment with the school district physician, Donatelli, in his private practice, so he could assess her condition for himself. However, when he learned who she was, he cancelled the appointment and hung up on Jane when she called him.
As a last resort, Jane took Sarah to the office of Dr. Michael Richheimer, the district doctor for a neighboring district. When they arrived, he told them he knew who they were and that he wouldn’t write Sarah a medical exemption.
However, Richheimer did agree to examine Sarah, after which he agreed she could not be safely vaccinated and wrote her a temporary accommodation. The school district “reluctantly agreed” to give her a 60-day exemption. Richheimer’s certification “did not differ in any legal sense from those submitted by the others that had been denied,” according to the complaint.
‘You need to just get the vaccine!’
Meanwhile, school officials harassed and humiliated Sarah, the complaint alleges. The school nurse told her in front of other students, “I’m fighting with your mom, you shouldn’t even be here. You need to just get the vaccine!”
The nurse also refused to allow Sarah to use a scooter to get around the school building when she had an injured foot, and denied her access to the nurse’s office to rest when she was experiencing extreme nerve pain.
As the 60-day deadline for her temporary accommodation approached, Jane asked Richheimer to extend the exemption. He said he couldn’t, because he feared “getting in trouble,” according to the complaint.
Jane succeeded in getting another physician to write an exemption, but the school suspended Sarah. They told Jane they would not consider accommodation, and that she could pursue her request with the New York State Board of Education. However, the Board of Education told her they would review a request only if it were submitted by the school following its denial.
“The District has thus created a procedural Catch-22, claiming Jane Doe must submit exemptions to the state, while the state confirms the District must first review and deny them before state review is possible,” according to the complaint.
Sarah and her mother returned to their house in foreclosure, postponing the sale despite the financial hardship, so Sarah could attend school in neighboring Long Beach while they figured out what to do.
Richheimer was the Long Beach district physician. He informed Sarah he was denying her exemption. However, he granted a 60-day extension, which the complaint alleges he did as “a temporary workaround to maintain the appearance of denying the request while tacitly acknowledging vaccination posed a medical risk to Sarah.”
Sarah, already suffering tremendous emotional distress, did her best to adjust to the new school and emerged quickly as a star athlete on the flag football team, where the coach planned to make her quarterback.
However, he told Sarah he changed his mind after he learned that administrators there planned to “fight” her mother’s accommodation requests and that she would be leaving the school soon.
Sarah became so depressed that she refused to go back to school. Her mother continues to try to get her back into Oceanside and is now suing the district for accommodation.
In her appeal to the court, Jane wrote:
“My daughter is in a state of crisis and I urgently beg this Court to help. Currently, she is not in school and her mental, emotional and physical health, as well as academic progress, is in jeopardy. I believe that if she is not allowed to return to school for the last quarter, she will be severely harmed.”
See more here The Defender
Please Donate Below To Support Our Ongoing Work To Defend The Scientific Method
PRINCIPIA SCIENTIFIC INTERNATIONAL, legally registered in the UK as a company 
incorporated for charitable purposes. Head Office: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX.
Trackback from your site.