“We are remarkably proud of the policies and procedures we have put into place to ensure our community remains safe and healthy and that our students continue to have the opportunity to learn in an in-person environment,” Carter told CNA.
In addition to being separated from their vaccinated peers at lunch time, unvaccinated students are barred from participating in any co-curricular activities, which includes sports.
“This policy, which remains in place today, has served us well,” Carter said. “We are not aware of any transmission on campus or among our teams this fall.”
The petition said that lunch segregation and denying unvaccinated students the ability to participate in athletics and extracurricular activities is “a practice without scientific justification.”
The petition says that available vaccines cannot prevent infection or transmission of COVID-19, while noting that “the only person who can benefit from the vaccination is the vaccinated individual. It protects no one else!”
The petition states that the school's policy also conflicts with guidance from the CDC.
"Cohorting people who are fully vaccinated and people who are not fully vaccinated into separate cohorts is not recommended. It is a school’s responsibility to ensure that cohorting is done in an equitable manner that does not perpetuate academic, racial, or other tracking," the CDC states.
Thomas W. Carroll, Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Archdiocese of Boston, told CNA that the archdiocese’s policy does not require students to be separated at lunch based on vaccination status, nor does it require vaccination for participation in sports or extracurricular activities. However, the archdiocese’s protocols don’t apply to school’s run by religious orders, he added.
Carroll said he is not aware of any other Catholic school in the archdiocese that has adopted Boston College High School’s approach to mandated vaccines.
Unvaccinated students are allowed to partake in sports in the state of Massachusetts. The Cambridge Public School system, a school system in Greater Boston, also voted for the 2021-2022 school year to exclude unvaccinated students from sports and extracurricular activities.
The petition maintains the school's policy runs counter to guidance from the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC), whose directors include Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley of Boston.
(Story continues below)
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"If any institution mandates COVID-19 vaccination, the NCBC strongly urges robust, transparent, and readily accessible exemptions for medical, religious, and conscience reasons,” according to statement issued by the NCBC on July 2, 2021.
“Catholic institutions, in particular, should respect the decisions of people to decline the use of vaccines dependent on abortion-derived cell lines," the NCBC states.
The petition maintains that the school’s COVID-19 measures have led some parents to vaccinate their students “against their better judgment and, worse, against their conscience.”
“We reject any notion of ‘protection’ for students and staff that trades dignity for discrimination,” the petition states.
Joseph Bukuras is a journalist at the Catholic News Agency. Joe has prior experience working in state and federal government, in non-profits, and Catholic education. He has contributed to an array of publications and his reporting has been cited by leading news sources, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Catholic University of America. He is based out of the Boston area.