A Vermont judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by parents of a student at Academy School in Brattleboro who received the Covid-19 vaccine against their wishes.
At a November 2021 vaccination clinic at the Brattleboro school serving pre-K through sixth grade, the 6-year-old child was mistakenly given a Covid-19 shot after a reported name tag mix-up.
The child’s parents, Dario and Shujen Politella, had not wanted their child vaccinated, and school officials apologized for the mistake.
“We are deeply sorry that this mistake happened, and have worked internally to improve our screening procedures,” Mark Speno, the Windham Southeast Supervisory Union school superintendent, wrote to parents after the incident.
Six months later, in May 2022, the Politellas sued Windham Southeast and the Vermont state government.
The lawsuit accused school and state officials of negligence, fraud and “battery of a minor,” according to a judge’s summary of the complaint.
The family members “have been traumatized, suffering mental anguish and additional educational expenses with the potential for future medical expenses,” the complaint said, according to the summary.
But Windham Superior Court Judge Michael Kainen dismissed the suit last month, ruling that federal law protects government officials from some lawsuits in the event of a public health emergency.
The PREP Act, a 2005 law, shields from liability officials who are administering “countermeasures” in response to a public health emergency. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the law has been cited frequently amid litigation over Covid-19 protective measures.
Because the Politellas “allege injury as a result of a countermeasure” and the PREP Act is “patently applicable to Plaintiffs’ stated claims,” the complaint must be dismissed, Kainen wrote in a Dec. 26 ruling.
An attorney for the family did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday. Speno, the Windham Southeast superintendent, did not respond to a Tuesday afternoon email.