The West Virginia Board of Education on Dec. 2 reinstated its ban on religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements after the state Supreme Court paused a lower court’s ruling that had permitted them.
The board said in a statement it was reimposing its order to county boards of education “not to accept religious exemptions to compulsory vaccination laws.”
The board in late November had suspended its directive, after West Virginia Circuit Judge Michael Froble ruled it had substantially burdened the religious exercise of parents who had filed for religious exemptions and sued the board over its stance.
Froble said the policy of not accepting religious exemptions violated a 2023 state religious freedom law and ordered the board and local boards not to enforce its policy against families that have sought, or do seek in the future, religious exemptions to mandated vaccines….