By Steven Allen Adams for The Intelligencer
CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Board of Education unanimously voted Wednesday to provide county school boards guidance to disregard Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s executive order allowing for religious and conscientious exemptions to the state’s school-age vaccine law.
During its monthly meeting in Charleston on Wednesday afternoon, the state Board of Education came out of executive session and voted unanimously for a motion requiring State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt to issue guidance to county school systems that they follow the current compulsory school vaccination law that does not permit religious exemptions for students.
Morrisey signed Executive Order 7-25 on Jan. 14 to allow for religious and conscientious objections to the state’s school vaccination mandates. The executive order required the commissioner for the Bureau of Public Health/state health officer to establish a process for parents/guardians to request religious or philosophical exemptions to school-age vaccines, only requiring a request in writing from the parent/guardian.
State Code requires children attending public and private school to show proof of immunization for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella and hepatitis B unless proof of a medical exemption can be shown.
