Nursery school wins case against 'anti-vaccine' parents after denying son's enrolment

The playschool, based in an undisclosed location in the Maresme district of the province, was hit with legal action at the end of May after the family claimed its right to freedom of ideology was being violated by their son's being barred from nursery school due to their beliefs.

According to the council, which runs the Kindergarten, the parents claimed their values should be respected in the same way that no public service or business is permitted to discriminate against any citizen on the grounds of their religion, even though the decision not to give their child the essential infant innoculations is not based upon faith grounds.

Judge Laura Mestres Estruch said no violation of ideology was present, since nobody had 'forced' the parents to vaccinate their child – although stressed that these innoculations are obligatory in 'certain neighbouring democratic countries' on pain of civil or even criminal action being taken against the caregivers.

She added that those parents who decide not to vaccinate their children nevertheless benefit from the protection against potentially fatal childhood diseases afforded by the 'remaining 95% of the population' who do take up these free jabs for their kids.

The judge added that the anti-vaccine 'ideology' was a 'minority option' which put other children at risk, and criticised the parents for believing their entitlement to a nursery school place for their son was 'greater than other children's right to health'.

The town council provided a written statement in its defence from Dr Carlos Rodrigo Gonzalo de Llíria, paediatrician at Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron Hospital, saying nursery schools are 'a high-risk environment' where youngsters 'can catch certain childhood-specific infections' which target the kids because they 'are very little and still undergoing the vaccination process', both of which factors 'leave them vulnerable'.

During the hearing, the parents stated that the 'harm caused by vaccinating children outweighs the benefits', and presented documents describing side-effects and harmful reactions.

But the paediatrician, considered by the judge to be 'one of the greatest experts in vaccination' in the area, refuted all the arguments presented by the parents and insisted that 'no public or government institution, nor scientific or medical society or committee of any level of prestige supports the anti-vaccine theory'; rather, 'entirely the contrary'.

Also, the child's parents said the nursery school had requested sight of each new charge's vaccination card upon enrolment, but 'did not specify that it had to be up to date', meaning the fact that they presented a blank card did not flout the rules.

The judge, however, said this was a reductio ad absurdum since the 'spirit' of the rule clearly implied that showing the vaccination card was 'to certify something', which a blank one does not.

She recalled a case of a little boy in Olot (Girona province) who died in hospital aged six in June 2015 from diphtheria, a condition automatically vaccinated against in earliest childhood and which, as a result, had hitherto been eradicated, and pointed out that the parents' anti-vaccine 'ideology' had cost their son his life.

The court verdict sets a precedent for the rest of the population, meaning if any other anti-vaccine parents are denied a nursery school place and opt to take legal action, they will automatically lose the case.