They live in NY. Most going out of state except for a few going to st johns. i would say at least 10 kids
Interesting. So 10 kids asked for exemptions or 10 (out of how many) were approved for exemptions?
Religious exemptions barred from universities as well? Including private? I skimmed the link quickly but didnāt see mention of whether this also pertains to private colleges. I ask, because my son attends a private college in NYS and it says right on their website what the procedure is for requesting a religious exemption for the COVID vaccine. I doubt they will grant (m)any but if it were barred by law I donāt see why they would be offering it.
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NY is granting them
I donāt know how many people applied or what the outcomes were for every single person
Iām just saying in the chat groups from my high school it seems at least 10 kids said they were granted exemptions.
people were taking screenshots and posting their approvals.
You canāt go back and look at Snapchat because it disappears after a certain amount of time
all I know is that itās more common than you would think.
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What do you mean by NY? I was asking @austinmshauri if the law referred to in that link was barring religious exemptions for ALL schools, including public and private universities or was this law WRT K-12 schools.
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I think what people are getting at is that you need to be careful about making sweeping statements based on a small sample. I live in an area that is mostly Catholic and I do not know one person who has not been vaccinated based on their religion, nor do I know of any kids asking for exemptions based on Catholicism. But that is just my experience. It would be incorrect to assume that not many Catholics nationwide are asking for exemptions based on my personal experience. My sample, although it seems overwhelming to me, is very small in the overall scheme of things. The only way to tell will be for schools to publish how many exemptions were asked for and how many they granted.
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Thatās a great question. I didnāt see anything about private colleges either. Iāll keep looking and will post an update if I find anything.
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i actually stated I cant speak to what is going on across the country - I can only speak to the group that I know who is posting from my high school and it was a lot of people for a small sample size.
It really has nothing to do with your organized religion and what your religion has to say about the vaccine. Religion is a deeply personal thing and completely open to personal interpretation. I know a lot of Catholics who have received religious exemptions; it didnāt matter that the Pope or anyone else recommended it.
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Two of the toughest schools to receive a religious exemption from are actually Catholic schools. At Fordham and Marist you need a note from your priest. Hofstra is not approving many either.
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I hope priests that care about public health arenāt out there writing a lot of those letters!!
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Money! They want all their students back and paying tuition. So they get the majority complying with the mandate and keep the ones who donāt want the vaxx happy by allowing exemptions.
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But are they actually against it for religious reasons or just using the religious exemption as their golden ticket to not vaxx?
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Oh, thanks for the infoā¦I didnāt realize that. Iām technically Catholic, but since the Pope/leadership said the vaccine is ok, I would have assumed Catholics couldnāt get exemptions, and it was only going to be available to the Christian Scientists, etc whose formal religions are against vaccines. It never occurred to me that I would be able to get a religious exemption (ha ha ha, probably largely because I was unbelievably eager to get the vaccine and thrilled when my whole family was vaccinated, so it would never occur to me to seek an exemption for any reason). This is helpful (and upsetting) to learnā¦I figured that there would be precious few people eligible for religious exemptions. Oh well, I think it sounds that from the schools that are reporting out, there still will not be a lot of exemptions, although a little worrisome to hear about the people LuckyJade knows about. My fingers are crossed it ends up a small number of exemptions when the data is all in.
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@taverngirl Marist is not a Catholic school anymore. It has not been affiliated with the Catholic Church in decades.
Oh wow, thanks for the info. I had no idea! Many of the students from our Catholic hs attend there, so I just assumed it was Catholic still.
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Ah - Thanks!
Letās draw some narrow distinctions among exemptions based on āreligionā vs. āconscience.ā A religious exemption should follow if oneās religious leaders have made a public statement condemning the vaccine on moral grounds. If one can verify that they practice that religion - say, a letter from a pastor or local leader - they can probably qualify. An exemption based on matters of āconscienceā wouldnāt require that one follow a particular religious practice; however, one may be required to provide proof of similar principled stands (for instance, they have objected to other vaccinations on similar moral grounds).
The confusion might result when the particular college in question blurs those lines between āreligionā and āconscience.ā
An informed and practicing Catholic may certainly demonstrate a consistent objection to any vaccine relying on aborted fetal cell lines, no matter how far back those lines go, and the Catholic Church recognizes the right and the freedom to follow oneās informed conscience. However - and this is important! - such a right, per Catholic teaching, does not apply merely to Catholics. It applies to everyone. So itās not considered a āreligiousā right as much as a āhumanā right.
The Catholic Church has not condemned the Covid vaccine - it has opined that such a vaccine is morally acceptable, despite the Churchās objections to the use of fetal cells in testing and production of medical therapies. Therefore, while a Catholic should follow his/her conscience on this issue - because everyone has the right and should have the freedom to do so - an objection to the Covid vaccine canāt be for āreligiousā reasons.
However, a particular institution might have a historical practice of leniency in granting āreligiousā exemptions. They may not care so much about the narrow distinction between āreligionā and āconscience,ā they may expand āreligionā to include private spiritual practices and beliefs, or they may not require more than a signed statement from a pastor verifying the memberās moral objections, similar to how a doctor might be able to verify a patientās medical issues in the request for a medical exemption. So the granting of exemptions might indeed be all over the place, even among Catholic institutions. We just werenāt tracking any of that before now.
@Luckyjade2024, Iām still pretty skeptical. No pastor would sign off on a letter written by someone else, especially on matters of faith and morals and especially with the wording that you provided (realizing that you were paraphrasing). A pastor might verify that John Doe was a member of the parish and received sacraments there - or they might compose their own letter explaining the CDF and USCCBās position. Going rogue on this issue seems a bit extreme to me, but perhaps you can provide a bishopās statement to that effect? Bishops have issues with the J&J as we know, but Iāve not read that any Catholic bishops are against the Covid vaccine in general - and of course here in the US we have choices.
The vaccinated have to protect the vaccinated and unvaccinated, according to the CDC.
The pastor simply was attesting to john doe being a practicing member in good standing in their church. this one pastor wasnāt debating vaccines. he was attesting to the parishioner belonging to the church.
not sure if different schools want different letters. this was the one that I saw.