Miami private school says vaccinated students must stay home for 30 days
Miami’s Centner Academy, which is fast becoming a rallying point for vaccine opponents, will not allow students who have been vaccinated to attend until 30 days after they receive each shot.
Citing false claims that people who have been vaccinated could have a “potential impact” on others, the academy (which describes itself as “The Brain School” on its awning) is refusing to allow students to attend in person until they sit out the mandated quarantine, according to an email obtained by Miami’s WSVN.
Centner Academy first made headlines in April when it told staff if they got vaccinated, they would not be allowed to teach this fall. “We cannot allow recently vaccinated people to be near our students until more information is known,” the school’s cofounder said in a letter first reported on by the New York Times.
The Centers for Disease Control has repeatedly debunked claims by vaccine opponents that the COVID-19 vaccine can “shed or release any of their components” via the air or skin contact.
While the school is positioning the move as “precautionary” and has said before it is not anti-vaccine, its website features an announcement (illustrated with a flying American flag) that reads, “medical freedom from mandated vaccines.”
“A lot of kids are suffering, and it is up to us as a Miami international school community to rule out any and all possibilities contributing to the rise in chronic diseases and disabilities for our students,” the announcement reads. “Before we, as a school, mandate anything that could possibly be causing so much harm to our students, studies need to be urged to be conclusive as to whether common mandatory vaccinations lead to various common health disorders. Families and children should have medical freedom. Students should not be forced to endure these immunizations until there are more significant long-term studies and examinations of the various implications and side effects of these drugs.”
Tuition at Centner Academy ranges from $15,000 to $30,000 per year and has become a favorite of well-off anti-vaccine proponents because of its repetition of false claims and support from parents who refuse to have their children immunized against the coronavirus.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
