18-year-old Jerome Kunkel sued his high school after the North Kentucky Health Department announced unvaccinated students have to stay at home.
The unvaccinated teen was barred from playing basketball.
A judge ruled against Kunkel, whose lawsuit argued that the vaccine is “immoral, illegal and sinful.” His father also said that he opposed vaccinations as some are derived from cells from unborn fetuses, the BBC reported.
In 2017, the Catholic Church said it is morally justifiable to take immunizations.
Christopher Wiest, the teen’s lawyer, said Kunkel developed symptoms of chickenpox but he doesn’t regret refusing to take the vaccine. “These are deeply held religious beliefs, they’re sincerely held beliefs,” he said.
“From their perspective, they always recognized they were running the risk of getting it, and they were OK with it.”
NBC News reported that: “Some ultraconservative Catholics oppose chickenpox vaccinations because it was developed in the 1960s from cell lines of two aborted fetuses.”
The teen told WLWT: “It was kind of ridiculous, because they issued the ban for 21 days, then it got extended longer because another kid came down with the chicken pox, so then it went on for longer. Towards the end of the ban, I actually got the chicken pox which should have extended the ban, but for some reason they didn’t.
“Things are sort of normal except for you know, the homework I got to catch up with and stuff like that.”
Wiest also said that the ban “was stupid,” adding: “He could have contracted this in March and been back to school by now.”
A spokesperson for the Northern Kentucky Health Department, Laura Brinson, said: “Encouraging the spread of an acute infection disease in a community demonstrates a callous disregard for the health and safety of friends, family, neighbors and unsuspecting members of the general public.”
Even though Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin has encouraged parents to immunize their children, he admitted he exposed all of his nine children to chickenpox. “We found a neighbor that had it, and I went and made sure every one of them got it. They were miserable for a few days and they all turned out fine,” he expressed.
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