At least one school district on Long Island has banned students who are patients of a former nurse whom the state has accused of falsifying vaccination records, and parents across the island are fighting the measure to exclude their children. There is.
The exclusion stems from a state investigation into vaccination records of children who were patients of former Amityville nurse Julie DeVuono and her clinic, Wild Child Pediatrics.
Last month, the state health department invalidated the measles, mumps, diphtheria and other immunization records of 133 Long Island children and one Orange County child, alleging that Mr. DeBuono had falsified vaccinations. She has already admitted selling more than $1.2 million in fake coronavirus vaccine cards as part of her criminal case.
The state has sent subpoenas to more than 100 school districts seeking childhood immunization records for about 750 children to investigate the scope of DeBuono’s alleged fraud.
What you need to know
The Plainedge School District has banned four children from school who were patients of Julie DeVuono, a former Amityville nurse who the state alleges falsified thousands of vaccine records. The district said the state health department said the children were not complying with state immunization laws.
The state has subpoenaed vaccination records for hundreds of children as it continues to investigate DeBuono, who denies falsifying childhood vaccines. She previously admitted selling fake coronavirus vaccine cards for $1.2 million.
Plainedge City Schools Commissioner Joseph Garcia said he is appealing to have his two children removed from the school. His lawyer said there was no evidence that Garcia’s children were unvaccinated and called their exclusion a “guilt by association.”
In some cases, parents have filed petitions to have the subpoenas quashed. But the parents of two students who were excluded from the Plain Edge school had blood tests taken to prove their children had received some of the required vaccines and were told by Wild Child years ago that He said he submitted paper records. He said he’s frustrated that it wasn’t enough for the health department and the school district.
“Obviously we got vaccinated there,” said PlainEdge School District Trustee Joseph Garcia, whose 7-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter have been out of school since Monday.
Garcia is one of more than 50 parents of former feral children who are challenging state and school district efforts to remove or issue citations to their children in court or government.
Parents of more than 80 former fat patients last month sued dozens of school districts, private schools and the state health department on Long Island, alleging that the subpoenas and exclusions violate the federal and state constitutions and state law. Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Christopher T. McGrath dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday.
At Plain Edge, two other former Wild Child patients have been removed and are now being homeschooled, Superintendent Edward A. Salina Jr. said.
The decision to exclude was made by the state, not the district, he said.
The state health department “examined these (records) and said these children should be excluded,” he said.
Erin Clary, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, said the state “informed schools of students who, after investigation, were found to be in non-compliance” and did not have effective vaccinations. He said he had a legal responsibility to remove the students. Medical exemption.
Asked how many wild child patients are unable to attend school, the agency said it “does not maintain real-time data on school exclusions.” The county health department referred questions to the state health department. A spokesperson for the state Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
Newsday contacted 18 school districts Thursday that have been issued citations or made headlines for having students with vaccination records from Wild Child. Districts were asked if any children were excluded this year because of their feral vaccination records.
Ten school districts declined to comment, and three said the children associated with Wild Child have been cleared for vaccination status. Some did not respond to questions, while others said Wild Child had “no impact” on their district.
Garcia said his children were not among the 134 people whose records were invalidated after checking state health department records.
“If there was evidence that my children were not actually vaccinated, we would revaccinate them,” he said.
“This is not an anti-vaccination story,” he said. “I want my children to be protected. As a father, if I allow my children to get polio or die from mumps or measles or rubella… You are disqualified.”
Garcia’s Mineola attorney, Christopher Lenke, said excluding the children “is nothing but guilt by association. At the end of the day, it’s the children who are suffering.”
Lenke said the state only accepts blood tests for antibodies for certain vaccines and not others, but records showing Garcia’s children have some antibodies could mean they didn’t get the necessary immunizations. He said that this shows that he has received all of them.
“I have yet to see any documentary evidence to suggest otherwise,” he said.
Lenke said Tuesday’s dismissal of the larger subpoena and exclusion case does not affect Garcia’s appeal to the state Department of Education to have the children’s exclusions revoked. The ministry on Wednesday rejected his request to allow his children to attend school while it considered the matter in more detail.
Garcia said she sent her oldest son to DeVuono shortly after his birth in 2014, and then her other children. His eldest son has not been ruled out, he said.
The state says it does not comment on cases involving specific children.
Newsday reported in July that DeBuono administered pediatric vaccines in New York state from 2002, when she received her nursing license, to 2019, just after the state ended its exemption for non-medical vaccines. It was reported that it was not. Clary said the state requires all vaccines administered to children to be reported on the electronic immunization registry.
Asked if the state believes DeBuono sometimes administered legal vaccines to children, Clary said, “I can’t comment because the investigation is ongoing.”
Garcia said he has a paper record of vaccinations from Wild Child dating back to 2014, but he doesn’t know why it’s not on the state registry.
“We had no way of knowing that these shots weren’t being properly recorded,” he says.
“Unfortunately, the person responsible for this incident is a nurse who did something she shouldn’t have done. It affected a lot of people,” PlainEdge School Board President Joseph Beyrouti said. “They are hurting their families.”
with Lisa Colangelo
Written by David Olson and Dandan Zou
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