Oceanside High School vaccine case: Judge rules teen blocked from school due to refusal can return

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Oceanside school district from banning a 16-year-old student who provided a doctor's note concluding that the girl shouldn't be fully vaccinated for hepatitis B due to allergic reactions to a previous shot, her family’s lawyer said.

The girl, identified in the family's lawsuit only by the pseudonym Sarah Doe, must be allowed to re-enroll in Oceanside High School, at least for the forthcoming school year, according to a preliminary injunction issued Tuesday by the judge, Gary R. Brown of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Central Islip.

The case is being funded by Children's Health Defense, the vaccine-skeptical organization founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to Michael Kane, of Wantagh, its director of advocacy.

The family's lawyer, Sujata Gibson, said  Doe has all the required vaccines but is missing the third and final shot for hepatitis B. Gibson said the girl is at risk of serious harm or death if she gets that dose, and that hepatitis B is not transmissible in a school setting. 

"Following these vaccinations, Sarah experienced intense pain throughout her body, severe kidney issues, debilitating migraines, severe immune system reactions, continuous rashes, and other symptoms requiring hospitalization and causing significant school absences," the lawsuit said.

Kane said the girl also has random, unexplained paralysis.

In court filings, Oceanside argues Doe's family initially told the district she would submit titer results establishing immunity, but what was submitted was insufficient. Doe then claimed the medical exemption but failed to provide adequate proof for the district physician to approve the exemption.

Later, based on what was provided, including in a call between a doctor for Doe  and the district physician, the district determined  the claimed adverse reactions — including hives and skin becoming red and raised when pressed or scratched — were insufficient bases for an exception.

Ruling from the bench, Brown said Doe  is likely to win the case, brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and issued an injunction blocking the district from refusing to enroll her again until the case is resolved in court, according to Gibson.

The district’s court papers said she was excluded from school as of Feb. 5 and withdrew five days later and attended Long Beach, a district from which she was also later excluded. She’s now being homeschooled and is a rising junior who is suffering due to her exclusion from school, the court papers said.

"This is a medically fragile child," Kane said.

Until 2019, Doe, who is Catholic, had a religious exception to vaccinations until the state revoked the law allowing such exceptions, Kane said. The girl then caught up on all required vaccines and had an adverse reaction to a previous hepatitis B shot, the legal papers said. She had initially enrolled at Oceanside High School for the 2024-25 school year.

A statement issued by Oceanside school district publicist Donna Kraus from Superintendent Phyllis Harrington said the district follows rules governing vaccination as well as "the expertise of our school district physician and the New York State Department of Health. This evidence-based approach has guided our decisions consistently. We will continue to follow this approach going forward.

"We are reviewing the decision with our legal counsel to determine appropriate next steps," the statement said.

Hepatitis B is a viral infection that is transmitted from person to person, typically through sexual activity. The virus can survive on surfaces such as a water bottle or playground equipment and can be transmitted through exposure to an infected person's contaminated bodily fluids. But those cases represent the minority of transmissions, according to Dr. William Schaffner, past medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases.

Vaccine campaigns for hepatitis B aim to create herd immunity by inoculating the whole population, so the virus can be eliminated in the community.

Hepatitis B causes fever, aches and pains, loss of appetite, and can turn a person yellow. It can be deadly soon after infection and, if the body doesn't get rid of the virus completely, can still kill decades later. There is no known treatment for acute hepatitis B, and the treatment for the long-term virus is imperfect, Schaffner said.

A third dose of the vaccine assures decades-long protection. There is no real risk to the community to having the student skip the third dose, just to herself down the road, Schaffner said.

"In her specific case, she may not have long-term protection against hepatitis B, so there is essentially no risk — in the short term," Schaffner said.

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.