Student suspended for not being immunized allowed back in school

? A high school student in Franklin County who was suspended from school for 12 days because he has not been immunized for mumps has been allowed back early.

David Brockway, 15, was forced to leave school Monday and would have missed his prom and a music trip during the suspension. But the family said school officials on Tuesday decided to allow them to sign a waiver allowing the boy to return to school.

John Brockway, his father, told school officials at a board meeting Monday that his son shouldn’t be barred from school because another child at Ottawa High School had mumps. He also said immunization appeared to be ineffective anyway.

Six cases of mumps had been reported in Franklin County as of Tuesday, county Health Department Director Barbara Conus said. All six people either had the vaccination or had the disease before.

School officials were acting on a state form that John Brockway had signed, which states that students who are not immunized can be excluded from school in the case of a vaccine-preventable disease outbreak. Brockway had claimed a religions exemption from immunizations for his children.

“I thought we had hit a wall,” Brockway said of the board meeting.

Supt. Jan Collins said Tuesday that the school had to research whether districts have to follow the original form. Officials called Brockway’s family on Tuesday afternoon to deliver the news.

Principal Justin Henry said the language on the waiver is specific to mumps.

“On the one hand, I wanted to take a stand,” David Brockway said. “If worse came to worse, I might have just gone and got the vaccination. But things worked out.”