Backed By Governor, Raleigh County Mom Sues For Religious Vaccine Exemption

A Raleigh County mother has filed a lawsuit against the West Virginia Board of Education, arguing that its denial of religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements has infringed upon her child’s religious freedom.

Miranda Guzman submitted a legal complaint Tuesday in West Virginia’s fourteenth circuit court, located in Raleigh County. The complaint asks the court for an injunction over school vaccine requirements, which it argues violates the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

That provision of the West Virginia Code limits the state government from “substantially [burdening] a person’s exercise of religion unless applying the burden to that person’s exercise of religion in a particular situation is essential to further a compelling government interest.”

Specifically, the complaint says this month the Raleigh County Board of Education — named as a co-defendant in the lawsuit, alongside the county superintendent — denied her daughter a religious exemption to school vaccine requirements. That followed guidance from the state’s Board of Education advising schools to follow prior vaccine protocol.

In January, Gov. Patrick Morrisey issued an executive order seeking to create a religious exemption to school vaccine requirements. Currently, students are required to receive vaccines for viruses including measles, mumps, rubella and polio before entering the state’s public school system.

But when the board convened earlier this month, it advised schools to follow existing laws surrounding school vaccine requirements for the upcoming school year. A bill seeking to modify those requirements did not pass the West Virginia Legislature this year, meaning religious exemptions to the requirement are not mandatory under state law.

The Religious Exemption Debate

In a June 12 statement the state Board of Education re-issued Tuesday, members cited the lack of passage on any such bill as justification for the guidance it provided schools.

“The intent of the state board is to do what is best for the 241,000 children, 23,000 educators, and 15,000 service personnel in our 629 public schools,” the statement reads. “This includes taking the important steps of protecting the school community from the real risk of exposure to litigation that could result from not following vaccination laws.”

Morrisey hosted a press conference in Beckley on Tuesday morning to express his support for Guzman and criticize members of the state’s Board of Education that he alleged are “trying to take matters into their own hands” surrounding school vaccine requirements.

“As a Christian, Miranda is raising a number of objections to state-mandated vaccines that run counter to her deeply held religious beliefs, including the use of fetal cells in some of the immunizations and preemptively altering her daughter’s natural immune system,” Morrisey said. “As governor, I fully support Miranda’s ability to seek a religious exemption, and I support her lawsuit against school board bureaucrats.”

Across the United States, some individuals have voiced concerns over the role of human fetal cells in vaccine development and research, often citing it as a religious justification for forgoing certain vaccines. But the American Academy of Pediatrics has said vaccines do not contain fetal cells outright.

Instead, certain vaccines have been developed using human cell cultures derived from two fetuses aborted in the 1960s. No fetal tissue remains in vaccines themselves, and no new fetuses are ever needed to supplement these ongoing cell lines, according to the academy. Other vaccines are made using entirely different cell lines.

Board Of Education Oversight

During his press conference, Morrisey also raised criticisms over a perceived lack of “political accountability” within the state’s Board of Education. Members are selected by the governor to serve nine-year terms.

In recent years, state officials have taken steps to gain more control over the board.

Lawmakers placed an initiative on voters’ ballots in 2022 to change the West Virginia Constitution by granting the West Virginia Legislature oversight over the Board of Education. However, residents voted down the measure.

Despite this, members of the state legislature moved this year to bring the board under its own oversight and control with the passage of House Bill 2755. The board voted in May to pursue litigation over the constitutionality of the bill.

Meanwhile, some West Virginians have expressed concern over how new vaccine exemptions could impact the state’s youth. That includes West Virginia Families for Immunizations, a grassroots organization that focuses on “advocating for the protection and preservation of the state’s strong immunization policies,” according to the group’s website.

“If parents choose not to vaccinate their children, they have the right to do so,” said Co-Director Jessie Ice in a statement issued Tuesday. “But those children do not have the right to then potentially bring deadly diseases to the classroom, where other children and adults who may not be vaccinated for medical reasons would be put at risk.”

West Virginia is one of just five states in the United States that does not offer religious or philosophical exemptions to school vaccine requirements, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. California, Connecticut, New York and Maine also currently lack such exemptions.

View The Circuit Court Complaint Here: