In a judgment by a Kentucky Judge, Jerome Kunkel, a Kentucky High school Student has been denied entry to his school because he is unvaccinated for chickenpox.
The decision was made seeing rising cases of unvaccinated children in the country and to stop viral outbreaks that could be prevented by vaccinating children, Boone County Circuit Judge James Schrand said in the order.
But Kunkel is not the only student who is banned from entering the school. Assumption Academy, a K-12 Catholic school in northern Kentucky has banned around 30 students including Kunkel from entering school because of a recent chickenpox outbreak in the school that happened in February.
However Kunkel’s lawyer, Christopher Wiest saying that the ban against the student would be ineffective in stopping the spread of chicken pox. Wiest said, “They all go to daily and weekly mass. The parish receives communion on the tongue. Communion-age kids are going to spread chickenpox. That testimony was unequivocal.”
Jeff Mando of Covington, the lawyer with health department said the court’s ruling, “upheld the health department’s mission to protect public health and the welfare of folks in Northern Kentucky.”
At the ruling, Mando presented a question citing the serious health risks unvaccinated student face while attending, “extracurricular activities in the face of an outbreak of a very serious and infectious disease at the school?”
Kentucky doesn’t have a low vaccination rate as most of the state has an above 90% vaccination rate. However, that’s not the case with Assumption Academy because in a report presented at the hearing it was revealed that school only have a vaccination rate of 18 percent which is extremely low.
Kentucky is not the only state which has enforced its vaccination law in recent time. As it was seen in the recent Measles outbreak in New York’s Rockland County. The outbreak prompted the city officials to ban any children below the age of 18 who are unvaccinated from entering any public places like parks and street exempting those who cannot be vaccinated for legitimate medical reasons.