A judge in Kentucky ruled against a high school student who sued after he wasn’t allowed to play basketball because he did not get a chickenpox vaccination.
The student, Jerome Kunkel, 18, filed a lawsuit against the Northern Kentucky Health Department, claiming that he did not get the vaccine for religious reasons, a local Fox affiliate reported.
Kunkel, who is Catholic, said the vaccine goes against his beliefs because it is “derived from aborted fetal cells.” He called that “immoral, illegal, and sinful.”
The judge ruled in favor of the health department on Tuesday, siding with prosecutors who argued in favor of banning students from school and extracurricular activities if they are not properly vaccinated so as not to put others at risk.
The department banned all students without proof of immunity from reporting to school at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and Assumption Academy after an outbreak of 32 cases of the chickenpox.
The ban lasted 21 days after the last known case of the chickenpox virus. Kunkel has been out of school since March 15 and his lawyer sought an injunction so all students could return to class.
Kunkel’s lawyer argued that he was discriminated against because of his religious beliefs, even though the National Catholic Bioethics Center says the chickenpox vaccination is fine because it doesn’t contain aborted cells.
[Also read: Teen who defied mother to get vaccinated tells Congress there are not two sides to the issue]
