In a 2-1 opinion, the Massachusetts Court of Appeals majority ruled against a state nonprofit organization’s efforts seeking immediate relief from two public school districts’ policies that required students to be vaccinated in order to participate in extracurricular activities, finding it failed to show that any of its members’ children were harmed or at risk of harm.
The Children’s Health Rights of Massachusetts, Inc., (CHRM) a nonprofit organized by several parents in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic to challenge mask and vaccine mandates issued by the districts across the state, sought declaratory relief and a preliminary injunction against the policies in Belmont and Cambridge public schools. At issue were district policies that required age-eligible students to be vaccinated in order for them to participate in extracurriculars—although medical, religious, and other exemptions were available, according to the majority’s opinion filed June 23.
