Long Island schools worried about disruption by anti-vaxxers

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A crowd of angry parents opposing a new state ban on religious exemptions from schoolchildren's vaccinations protested here Monday, as some authorities warned that local demonstrations might be looming on Long Island as well.

Thousands of parents statewide — many of them from Nassau and Suffolk counties — have been advised by local school districts that they must provide proof of their children's immunizations from measles, mumps and other diseases within 14 days of school openings. Families affected previously had obtained exemptions from inoculations on religious grounds.

The response to the state's legal shift from exemptions has been swift and vocal. At the state Education Department on Monday, hundreds of protesters — some chanting "No school, not cool!" — pushed their way through turnstiles and rallied in a hallway, despite pleas by security guards that they move to an auditorium set aside for their use.

State troopers and Albany police were called in, and the department's stately front entrances were chained shut temporarily, in a rare safety precaution.

Meanwhile, a monthly meeting of the state's Board of Regents, originally scheduled to begin at 9 a.m., was delayed about 40 minutes, while officials moved to restore order. Several leaders of the protest movement who were invited to the meeting exchanged words with board members briefly, but then quieted down after being told they would have to leave otherwise.

In mid-June, lawmakers voted to abolish the exemption, following the worst measles outbreak in the nation in 27 years. Many of the cases occurred in New York State, concentrated in Brooklyn and in Rockland County.

Meanwhile, one lawmaker on the Island cautioned of potential local protests as well. State Sen. Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore), in a Sept. 4 letter to the Education Department, said local school officials needed state guidelines to help deal with such possibilities.

"Numerous school officials have reached out to me expressing great concern that acts of civil disobedience may take place by parents of unvaccinated children not permitted to enter schools," Boyle stated.

Representatives of local school administrators agreed that localities were bracing for confrontations.

"Now, we've got superintendents saying, 'What do we do if parents show up after 14 days and want to keep their children in school?' " said Robert Lowry, deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents.