Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

New York Judge Makes Key Ruling For Unvaccinated Students Amid Measles Outbreak

The measles debate increased with intensity on Tuesday.

Due to an "unprecedented" measles outbreak in Rockland County, NY, U.S. District Court Judge Vincent Briccetti denied granting parents permission for 44 unvaccinated students to return to Chestnut Ridge school from a ban enforced by the Rockland Health Department and its commissioner.

Briccetti told the federal court in White Plains:

"The plaintiffs have not demonstrated that public interest weighs in favor of granting an injunction."

While the ruling is a small victory, it is far from over.


According to the Journal News, Rockland County Attorney Thomas Humbach said the judge's ruling is effective in preventing the risks of spreading and contracting measles at the school.

The attorney said in a statement:

"We have had success, but this case is not over. While no one enjoys the fact that these kids are out of school, these orders have worked; they have helped prevent the measles outbreak from spreading to this school population."


Parents like Beatrice Burgis were relieved at the judge's ruling and told CBS News she agreed with the judge's decision.

"I believe that he's trying to mitigate a potential further outbreak and he's trying to keep everybody safe."


On December 5, Commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert imposed an "exclusion order" on 60 schools within the 10952 and 10977 zip codes under the 95% vaccination rate to ban unvaccinated children from attending classes until the outbreak was over.

Many of the schools in Rockland affected by the mandate are yeshivas.

The 24 plaintiffs in the lawsuit alleged that the commissioner violated the parents' religious exemption rule that allows them to opt out of vaccinations for religious and philosophical reasons, and they argued that none of the barred children from the school were among the reported cases from the outbreak that began in October 2018..





As of March 13, 2019, the number of confirmed measles cases in Rockland County increased to 146 as a part of an epidemic that affected an Orthodox Jewish community in Spring Valley, Monsey and New Square.

So far, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported there are 228 cases in 12 states.



Not everyone understood that the ruling was about prevention or the spread of measles in the school, regardless of the lack of cases. Might this anti-vaxxer become enlightened?

We hope so.







We hope the judge's ruling will be the beginning of the end for the Rockland County measles outbreak.

According to CBS Local, some of the controversial parents have hired tutors for the days their kids are missing out in school while others arranged for streaming live lessons online.

After what seemed to be an endless standoff between the school and the families, some parents opted for the unthinkable: they got their children vaccinated.

More from Trending

unidentified female Trump supporter at MAGA rally
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty Images

MAGA Mom Goes Viral After Revealing Her Son Refuses To Talk To Her Because She Voted For Trump

While people grapple with how to handle family members and friends who voted against their basic human rights, the people in question are dealing with the fallout from their choices.

MAGA Republican President Donald Trump and the Republican Party's embrace of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 made clear the rights of women; ethnic, racial and religious minorities; the disabled; immigrants; and the LGBTQ+ community were at risk.

Keep ReadingShow less
Mike Lee
Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

GOP Senator Faces MAGA Backlash Over Plan To Sell Millions Of Acres Of Public Land

Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee is facing harsh criticism—including from Team MAGA—over his proposal to sell off millions of acres of public land in the American West owned by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service to supposedly create more affordable housing.

Lee claimed in his proposal that there is an "extensive process for interested parties like States and local governments to nominate land for disposal to meet housing and community needs," noting that it specifically exempts national parks, monuments, and federally designated wilderness areas from potential land sales.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Trump Ripped For Complaining That Americans Get 'Too Many' Federal Holidays Off Work

While it was ultimately former President Joe Biden who established Juneteenth as a federal holiday, President Donald Trump—who once campaigned on that promise—took to Truth Social on Juneteenth to whine about the number of "non-working holidays" Americans get, claiming that it costs businesses "billions of dollars."

Juneteenth is derived from June 19, 1865, when Union troops led by General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and declared that all enslaved African Americans in the state were free.

Keep ReadingShow less
A woman sitting up in bed as a man sleeps next to her.
Florida State University Researchers Find Predictors for Infidelity in New Study
(Wodicka/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

The Biggest 'They're Definitely Cheating On Me!' Signs People Ignored

When our partner commits suspicious behavior, it's easy for us to jump to conclusions.

Most of the time, the conclusions we jump to are 100% wrong and are just our imaginations playing tricks with us.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @cassdamm's TikTok video
@cassdamm/TikTok

Woman Shares Why She Refuses To Tell Her Late Dad's Mistress Of 30 Years That He Died

While it doesn't always happen, sometimes we get to see karma at work—and sometimes, the revenge is sweet.

TikToker @cassdamm, who previously went viral for sharing the unhinged, five-page letter her 15-year-old son's principal sent, complaining about him "wandering the halls" and "being truant" for buying a drink on his way back to class, is openly celebrating the death of her father, but it's not for the reason you'd think.

Keep ReadingShow less