Hawaii Court Restrains Health Dept. TB Skin-Testing: Student Wins Religious Freedom and School Access
From Len Horowitz
Please help us get this GREAT NEWS out to EVERYONE. The press release
heralds our first court order and victory here in Hawaii with nationwide
implications concerning draconian public health dept. policies re:
vaccinations and TB skin testing.
The second link is a new article I've just posted entitled "What Jesus and
Moses Would Say and Do About Vaccinations and TB Skin Testing."
Let me know if you can't get to these articles for any reason.
This latest victory will be sustained with everyone's help and prayers.
Much love and aloha,
Len Horowitz
here is the link to the GREAT NEWS press release:
http://www.drlenhorowitz.com/Press/press_releases/tuberculosis/release10_hawaii_case.html
Also, this seperate article should also be sent out:
http://www.drlenhorowitz.com/news/vaccine_articles/jesus_and_moses_vaccinations.html
These items, as you will read, are VERY IMPORTANT for our work.
Please learn from our mistake and educate BEFORE you vaccinate!
For more information visit www.vacinfo.org
or email VIC@vacinfo.org
*****************
http://www.drlenhorowitz.com/Press/press_releases/tuberculosis/release10_haw
aii_case.html
Tetrahedron Press
Health Science Communications for People Around the World
206 North 4th Avenue, Suite 147 0 Sandpoint, ID 83864 0 208-265-2575 0 FAX:
208-265-2775
NEWS RELEASE
Release: No. TB-10
Date Mailed: October 5, 2006
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jackie Lindenbach-808/965-2112;
tetra@tetrahedron.org
Hawaii Court Restrains Health Dept. TB Skin-Testing: Student Wins Religious
Freedom and School Access
Hilo, HI -A Judeo-Christian minister's daughter won her freedom to return
to public school today by order of the Third Circuit Court of Hawaii after
being expelled for more than a month. The 14-year-old was ordered to
homeschool by health officials due to her family's religious conviction to
abstain from TB skin testing and vaccinations.
The restraining order, which has an immediate effect on the Dept. of Health
and Dept. of Education in Hawaii, sends a message nationally. The final
outcome of the case may set an American precedent as a victory for
religious freedom and body sovereignty.
Alena N. Horowitz, a straight "A" student, Varsity athlete, and author of a
children's book extolling the virtues of love and natural healing, was
effectively "quarantined" from Hilo High School in early September for
failing to comply with the State's TB skin testing mandate. The expulsion
violated several state and federal laws according to the meritorious
complaint scheduled for preliminary hearing on October 12.
Like Rowe vs. Wade, the outcome of this controversial action may set a
national precedent restoring choice and religious freedoms increasingly
violated or restricted nationally by health department officials that
demand TB skin tests and vaccinations for employment or school admission.
Two Hilo judges excused themselves for potential conflicts before Judge
Elizabeth A. Strance ordered Dept. of Health officials and school
administrators to cease harming the student while the case moves through
the courts.
The student "is sustaining immediate and irreparable injury, loss, damage
and such would be continuing in nature by being kept from classes and
activities," Judge Strance wrote. "Said injury is irreparable given the
nature of the educational process which requires timely completion of
assignments and examinations, the increasing nature of the burden over
time, the importance of attendance for full learning opportunity, and that
there appears an inadequate remedy at law."
"It is further ordered that defendants desist and refrain from denying
admission to Alena N. Horowitz to Hilo High School classroom and
extracurricular activities," the order stated.
The court's decision may help determine how far health officials can go in
curtailing civil rights and religious freedoms while administering to
public health risks in an age of bioterrorism and threatened outbreaks.
In Hawaii, TB skin testing has been mandatory only for secular students for
a decade. This entire time authorities have misrepresented the threat of an
outbreak, and claimed no religious exemptions exist for the TB test. To the
contrary, state laws evidence allowable religious exemptions and, in fact,
TB levels statewide have remained nearly the same low risk level since the
legislation took effect in 1996.
"If there truly was an imminent danger of a TB epidemic on the Big Island
of Hawaii then officials are additionally negligent," Dr. Leonard Horowitz,
Alena's father said. "Health officials are required by law to provide
weekly reports on a proclaimed outbreak, or lift their quarantines within
72 hours. We weren't given any notice, never anything in writing, and their
quarantine has been illegally in effect for more than a month."
Alena was certified "TB free" by her medical doctor last spring, but was
forced from school anyway by Hilo, Hawaii's Health Department Director,
Judy Akamine because of the lacking TB test. Akamine disallowed all
possible alternatives to the skin test including chest x-rays, sputum
analysis, and a new blood test deemed superior by federal authorities.
According to the family's attorneys, Akamine's actions violated several
state and federal laws by denying the student's boni fide religious
exemption from the test. The test is obviously a form of "medical
examination;" legally considered an "immunization" by the State's clear
definitions. Both require health officials to honor religious exemptions
according to a half dozen State laws.
Akamine and other officials had routinely claimed that TB skin testing was
not an "immunization," but a careful review of their own "Administrative
Rules" book evidences otherwise. The plantiffs' attorneys say that
officials misrepresented clear definitions, were grossly negligence in
dishonoring legislated religious rights, and criminally liable for breaking
laws considered a felony under State statutes.
Akamine rejected the Administrative Rules governing health officials'
behavior when Dr. Horowitz brought these laws to her attention. She told
him she didn't understand the laws, and then referred the matter to the
State's attorney general's office. There the decision was made to force the
teen's home schooling.
"This is a great civics lesson for Alena and our community," said
plaintiffs' attorney Gary Zamber of North Hilo "I'm very proud of Alena for
standing up for her rights and for those who may be persecuted in the
future for holding different religious convictions. She is also serving to
bring justice to those who have disrespected the body temple as a sovereign."
Dr. Horowitz, the Overseer of The Royal Bloodline of David ministry, has
been at the forefront of defending religious freedom internationally from
the threat of "genocidal contaminations" from vaccinations. His website
www.DrLenHorowitz.com, offers a
controversial view of vaccinations that
have been linked to many new diseases, and articles written for the
ecclesiastic community including one entitled, "What Jesus and Moses Would
Say and Do About Vaccinations."
Horowitz's family involvement in this case he says, "obviously came by
Divine appointment." Someone with his credentials was needed to "take these
devil-doers to task," he said, referring to his doctorate in medical
dentistry from Tufts University and a Master of Public Health Degree from
Harvard. "Intelligence is needed to stand up for sanity in public health
policy, particularly since autocrats are violating state, federal, and
Biblical laws."
.
The expulsion caused Alena to be targeted with substantial persecution as
evidenced on the Hawaii Herald-Tribune's top Blog.
"When I asked to get my homework from my teachers the vice principle told
me that the problem was my religion was keeping me from going to school,"
Alena said. She was then told that principal Robert Dircks would need to
approve of way in which she got her assignments since she was not even
allowed to step foot on school property.
"When I confronted Dircks about this deplorable treatment he said this
problem should not have happened, homework assignments should have been
readily available, and that he would investigate why Alena had been
misinformed," Dr. Horowitz said.
The court order for Alena to return to school "is a fine example of how the
legal system can work to resolve disputes," attorney Zamber said. "This
case may lead everyone to recognize religious exemptions to medical
examinations and "immunizations" including TB skin testing is a
constitutional right, not a privilege to be carelessly overlooked by health
officials."
Too often parents have been coerced into accepting unwanted procedures
based on lacking awareness of the law. "There is a strong individual right
to privacy, liberty, and religious expression," Zamber explained. "Our
eternal vigilance is the price we all must pay for our constitutional
freedoms."
-end -
Note to journalists: For interviews on this topic, or copies of the
complaint, contact Alena and Dr.Horowitz at 808-965-2112. To contact Judy
Akamine call 808-974-6025. Attorney Zamber's number is 808-962-0025.
Permission to circulate and reprint this article is granted by Tetrahedron
Publishing Group, 206N. 4th Avenue, Suite 147, Sandpoint, ID 83864,
http://www.tetrahedron.org