Newly reported details include some parents’ reasons for not vaccinating children, as well as fallout from County Executive Ed Day’s order barring them from schools and many public places, court records show.
Some parents set up a makeshift home-school in their basement. Others had tutors to keep children on track academically. Many described struggling to explain the situation to emotionally distraught children.
Identities of parents and children weren't disclosed in court records.
One parent’s affidavit involved a 14-year-old boy getting tutored during the ban, and Rockland’s prior measles-related exclusions from schools with low vaccination rates stemming from the outbreak that started last fall.
Like the dozens of other children in the lawsuit, the boy attended Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, and its affiliated schools.
COURT: What's next after judge halts Rockland's emergency declaration?
The parent also explained the choice to obtain a religious exemption from vaccinating the child.
“We are NOT against vaccinations. We believe that GOD created the body, and it should remain untainted by man,” the parent stated, attributing it to deeply held religious beliefs without disclosing a specific denomination.
What follows are the stories of struggle from parents cited in the lawsuit, which resulted in acting state Supreme Court Judge Rolf Thorsen issuing a temporary injunction halting the emergency declaration.
One parent described moving to Chestnut Ridge specifically to educate two children at Green Meadow Waldorf School.
“We believe in the principals of Waldorf Education including the education of the whole child — physical, social, emotional, and mental/academic,” the parent said.
The parent who relocated to be near the school also temporarily taught nine unvaccinated students in a makeshift homeschooling arrangement during the measles exclusion, court records show.
The home-schooling attempt, however, proved insufficient as the exclusion orders stretched, the parent said.
The Waldorf schools association has stated its educational objectives do not include avoidance of, or resistance to, childhood immunization.
The association also noted it encourages parents to consider their civic responsibility regarding immunizations, but ultimately the decision is one made by parents in consultation with their physician.
“The health, safety, and well-being of children are our forefront concerns," the association said.
In addition to the Rockland legal battle, a Waldorf school in North Carolina is embroiled in a controversy over a chickenpox outbreak that ranks as the state's largest since a vaccine for the virus became available more than 20 years ago, USA TODAY Network reported.
At least 36 students at Asheville Waldorf School contracted the varicella virus, known to most as chickenpox. The school has one of the highest vaccination religious exemption rates in North Carolina.
During the Rockland exclusion, the temporary homeschooling parent’s 9th grade daughter was taking classes digitally through an internet streaming program.
But the girl's grades started to slip and the parent eventually got her vaccinated, despite a prior religious exemption, court records show.
The 5th grade boy, however, has been enrolled in a Connecticut school that accepted the unspecified religious exemption, court records show.
Another parent, whose husband is a faculty member at the school, described being overwhelmed by the emotional and logistical burdens of having two children barred from school due to a religious exemption to vaccination.
The weight of the situation led the family to vaccinate the oldest son, court records show.
“Deciding between our religious rights and our children’s right to an education is not a choice one should have to make,” the woman said.
After outlining the agonizing decision to vaccinate, the parent told of great-grandparents who immigrated to the U.S. in 1910.
“These relatives of mine were Jewish and while treatment of Jews in Russia at that time was appalling, what finally made my brave and bold great-grandmother say ‘enough is enough’ is when the government decreed that Jewish kids could no longer attend school,” the woman said, describing New York as a beacon of religious tolerance at the time.
“Now, 109 years later, the government of New York is telling me my children cannot go to school because of our religious beliefs,” she said, referring to Rockland's orders.
Another parent of two children, ages 7 and 9, described missing work and losing wages in order to care for them during the school exclusion, as well as concerns about vaccination demands.
“The pressure to have my children vaccinated has taken its toll on my family’s health,” the parent said, citing how the once happy children now cry easily due to the anxiety, depression and fear.
The parent also addressed other families' decisions to vaccinate children to get them back to school, despite violating their beliefs.
The religious exemption described by this parent is unspecified and referred to as an understanding of God’s will.
Another parent described the family’s reason for not vaccinating two girls, ages 5 and 8.
“We carry strong spiritual beliefs that the body is more than physical matter to be manipulated and that illness is a mode of transformation for the body if it naturally responds to illness,” the parent said, adding they would not adhere to vaccination by coercion.
Some of the parents explained they’re living on the Waldorf campus as faculty or workers there. One couple described having three children excluded for being unvaccinated due to Buddhism and religious beliefs.
The woman involved was raised in the Shinto religion of Japan. She described working long hours as a teacher at the schools to help coordinate exclusion-related staffing.
“In the begging of the exclusion, I stayed up until midnight almost every day to manage the teachers’ schedules so that they could visit/tutor our excluded students,” she said, adding it ruined her health.
“I feel I’m always running in between my children and my students and cannot function very well any more,” she added.