A Leeds parent is suing local and state education leaders for denying his son public school enrollment over his son’s vaccination status, alleging it is unconstitutional.

James Childs has sued Maine Department of Education Commissioner Pender Makin and Cari Medd, superintendent of Maine School Administrative District 52, where his child attends school.

He alleges school officials have attempted to persuade him into vaccinating his 12-year-old son through “threats of expulsion and ultimatums,” including, denying his son enrollment next school year if he does not receive the Tdap (tetanus , diphtheria, and pertussis) and meningococcal vaccinations.

Childs chooses not to vaccinate his son due to religious beliefs, the lawsuit says.

Students are required to be vaccinated against nine diseases to attend public school. Schools are responsible for maintaining a list of students who are not vaccinated, state law says.

Superintendents determine a student’s enrollment eligibility based on their vaccination status and they can expel students from school activities if there is a clear danger to the health of others, or if there’s no plan to vaccinate a child.

Under state law, an unvaccinated student can be allowed to attend school if a parent presents plans to vaccinate the child within 90 days of their first day at school; if the school receives written consent from a parent that their child can be vaccinated at a school-based vaccination clinic; or, if a student with an individualized education plan had an agreement with school officials before Sept. 1, 2021.

Students can also receive a medical exemption if they can provide a written statement from a medical professional saying in their judgment, immunization against one or more of the diseases may be medically inadvisable.  

Religious and philosophical exemptions were eliminated in 2021.

That change shifted Maine from the state with one of the lowest childhood vaccination rates to one of the highest in just two years.

In 2024, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that the state had reached “herd immunity,” meaning at least 95% of the population had been immunized.

Before those exemptions were banned, Maine had one of the highest kindergarten vaccine opt-out rates in the country. During the 2017-18 school year, 5% of Maine kindergarteners did not have childhood vaccines for religious reasons, compared to a 1.8% national average.

Childs argues that his choice to not vaccinate his child falls under the First Amendment.

He’s represented by We The Patriots, USA Inc., a nonprofit parental rights organization that has sued other school districts across the country, including other vaccination cases.

The group says that it fights for constitutional rights and other freedoms through public interest litigation, education and other outreach methods to maintain religious, medical, parental and educational freedom. The suit says Childs is a member.

In a statement to the Sun Journal, Brian Festa, vice president and co-founder of We The Patriots USA, said the refusal by the school district and state to respect the family’s religious objections to vaccinations is a clear violation of First Amendment rights.

“We intend to take this case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary, and will fight with everything we have to see to it that this student begins school on time when the new academic year begins on Aug. 27,” Festa said.

Neither Medd nor Makin responded to a request for a comment.

Maine School Administrative District 52 includes Greene, Leeds and Turner.