Parents are instructed on how to circumvent the mask and vaccine rules

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Alsea, Oregon (AP) — School supervisors in Oregon tell parents that quoting federal disability law can prevent children from wearing masks. Pastors of Megachurch, California, offer religious exemptions to those who are morally in conflict over vaccine requirements.

And the Louisiana Attorney General posted a sample letter on the Facebook page of his office for those trying to circumvent the Governor’s mask rules.

Throughout the United States, religious people, doctors, civil servants, and other regional leaders are trying to help people circumvent COVID-19 precautions.

Proponents of these workarounds say they are looking for child health and parental rights, but such strategies are fraudulent and irresponsible and can undermine efforts to defeat the highly contagious delta variant. Some people say that there is.

Mask and vaccine requirements vary from state to state, but are often exempt from certain medical conditions and religious or philosophical objections.

In Oregon, rural director Mark Thielman of the School District of Alcy told his parents that applying for accommodation for children under federal disability law could circumvent the governor’s school mask requirements.

Thielmann said he came up with the idea after the governor’s mission created a “huge and huge backlash” from his parents.

“The majority of my parents are skeptical about COVID-19 and no longer believe what they were told,” said Thielmann, whose coastal mountain district of the state begins classes on Monday. I did. “Are there options?”

In a letter to educators last week, Democratic Governor Kate Brown said Tillman was undermining her policy by “instructing students to lie” about her disability. He said he was shocked.

Brown requires school masks and vaccinations for all school staff amid a surge in infectious diseases affecting Oregon. The state breaks the record of COVID-19 hospitalizations daily, and the number of cases in children is increasing dramatically.

Tyrman, who plans to run for governor next year when Brown can’t seek re-election due to term restrictions, isn’t a masker, but face coverings can cause anxiety and headaches in children. He said he was sensitive to his parents’ concerns about having sex.

He said he believes that in some cases these issues hinder learning and justify the exemption under Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act.

However, under federal law, Laurie Vanderprog, deputy secretary-general of the Council for Exceptional Children, an advocacy group, allows children to be maskless simply because they ask. I warned that it would not be done.

Under the law, she said, the school district needs to go through a formal process to see if a child actually has a particular mental or physical disability, such as a respiratory illness. ..

In Kansas, the Spring Hill school board allows parents to claim a medical or mental health exemption due to the county’s requirement for elementary school students to mask. They do not need a healthcare provider to sign off.

Board member Ali Sealing said the idea was to give parents “freedom to make health decisions for their children.”

Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry regularly spars with Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards, whose parents are philosophical or religious, either from Edwards’ mask rules at school or from vaccination requirements. I have posted a sample letter that allows you to request an exemption. It was enacted.

The letter has been shared by Republicans and thousands of other people.

“Louisiana is not under the control of a dictatorship. The question is,” Who decides the choice of health care for you and your child? ” In a free society, the answer is citizens, not states, “Laundry wrote on Facebook.

Edwards accused the Attorney General of causing confusion and defended his policy on face covering.

“By adopting these measures and ignoring those that do not want to admit the current crisis, we can send our children to school this year and keep them safe,” said the governor.

The California Medical Commission is investigating doctors who say critics are giving children dozens of one-sentence mask exemptions to circumvent the state-wide school mask requirements.

Dr. Michael Huang, a practitioner in the suburbs of Sacramento in Roseville, refused to answer questions from the Associated Press, but told other media outlets that he would examine each child and issue an appropriate exemption. rice field. The California Medical Association has issued a statement condemning “illegal doctors” who sell “fake” exemptions.

In the neighboring suburbs, Rev. Greg Fairrington of Rocklin’s Destiny Christian Church has issued at least 3,000 religious exemptions to those who oppose the vaccines that are mandated in more and more places in California.

He said in a statement that his church received thousands of calls from doctors, nurses, teachers, and first responders who were afraid to lose their jobs because they did not want to be vaccinated. His office refused to share the tax exemption letter.

“We are not an anti-vaccine,” he said. “At the same time, we believe in freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. Vaccines pose a moral danger to many religious people.”

Health experts such as Dr. Peter Chin Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, warned that such a strategy would be confusing about masks and vaccination.

The virus is “looking for fractures in the system,” he said, “and we have a lot of fractures in the system.”

Jenny Jonack, who lives in Oregon, has an 11-year-old daughter who is susceptible to COVID-19 due to autism and health problems. He said wearing a mask is a “very small inconvenience” to protect vulnerable students.

“If the child really has a real reason, if there is some kind of breathing or breathing problem, it should be respected,” she said. “But if not, what if we teach children that basically as easy as wearing a mask should bend the rules? I don’t know if you’re teaching. “

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Har reported from San Francisco and Cline from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press author Melinda Deslatte of Baton Rouge, Louisiana and John Hannah of Topeka, Kansas contributed to this report.

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