CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Board of Education unanimously voted Wednesday to provide county school boards guidance to disregard Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s executive order allowing for religious and conscientious exemptions to the state’s school-age vaccine law.

During its monthly meeting in Charleston on Wednesday afternoon, the state Board of Education came out of executive session and voted unanimously for a motion requiring State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt to issue guidance to county school systems that they follow the current compulsory school vaccination law that does not permit religious exemptions for students.

Morrisey signed Executive Order 7-25 on Jan. 14 to allow for religious and conscientious objections to the state’s school vaccination mandates. The executive order required the commissioner for the Bureau of Public Health/state health officer to establish a process for parents/guardians to request religious or philosophical exemptions to school-age vaccines, only requiring a request in writing from the parent/guardian.

State Code requires children attending public and private school to show proof of immunization for diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella and hepatitis B unless proof of a medical exemption can be shown.

An effort to codify Morrisey’s executive order failed when the West Virginia House of Delegates voted down a heavily amended Senate Bill 460. But Morrisey’s vaccine executive order remains in effect.

Attorneys with the ACLU-WV and Mountain State Justice filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of Kanawha County and Cabell County parents seeking a writ of mandamus from the Kanawha County Circuit Court directing the Governor’s Office to abide by the state’s school-age mandatory immunization program, as well as seeking to have Morrisey’s executive order deemed unlawful or invalid. That lawsuit is currently pending.

At the start of Wednesday’s state Board of Education meeting, members heard from Sean Whelan, general counsel for Morrisey, who said that the governor’s executive order was in line with the Equal Protection for Religion Act passed by the Legislature in 2023. That law establishes that the government cannot treat religious conduct more restrictively than activities of comparable risk or due to alleged economic considerations.

“The governor is not second guessing the science on vaccines or ignoring or defying the law passed by the Legislature,” Whelan said. “Instead, he is reading that vaccine law together with another law the Equal Protection for Religion Act of 2023 which prohibits government action that substantially burdens a person’s exercises of religion unless it serves a compelling government interest and is the least restrictive means of achieving that interest.”

Last month, the Governor’s Office released guidance to schools and parents seeking vaccine exemptions. The state Department of Education had also released a memo to county school superintendents ordering them to follow the state vaccination law but walked that memo back due to pressure from the Governor’s Office.

“I want to be clear: (Morrisey) is not directing or ordering the state Board of Education or any county boards of education to do anything,” Whelan said. “That’s why the executive order only directs the actions of the health officials that are under his purview. But he is asking for your partnership and support in applying the Equal Protection for Religion Act that has been in the book since 2023 and until he came into office wasn’t applied.”

However, four other speakers during morning delegations urged the state board to continue to support the state’s school-age vaccine program and reject the governor’s vaccine exemption executive order.

“As both a physician and a mother, I can tell you that immunizations are one of the most critical tools we have to keep our children safe, healthy, and in school,” said Dr. Allison Holstein, a pediatrician at the Charleston Area Medical Center. “I want to voice my full support for directives that our schools follow the law regarding immunization requirements, which has made West Virginia a leader in prevention of vaccine preventable diseases, including measles, which we have had 13 states with outbreaks, including every state that’s surrounding us.”

“One of the ways that we have been willing and able to care for and love each other for generations now is through vaccinating our children before attending our schools so that they are protected from the unnecessary spread of illness and disease,” said the Rev. Eric Miller with St. John’s Episcopal Church in Charleston. “By immunizing our children, we are not only protecting them, but we’re also protecting the rest of the staff in our society and elderly as a whole.”