Allegations by Attorney General Jeff Landry and others that a Monroe medical school is harassing three students who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine are not accurate, according to the college’s spokeswoman.
Landry and Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit policy group based in Florida that defends religious freedom, sent separate letters this month to Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM). The letters warned school officials that Louisiana statutes bar the college from requiring students to get the vaccine as a condition of attending the campus.
Cindy Shepard Rawlins, a VCOM spokeswoman, told the Louisiana Record that the letters’ descriptions of the school’s coronavirus vaccine policies are inaccurate and that exemptions are available to medical students.
“From the beginning, VCOM has committed to remain compliant with the laws of Louisiana,” the college’s statement states. “At this time, only three of the more than 300 students enrolled at VCOM-Louisiana have not been vaccinated. The avenue to request a medical, religious or judicially approved exemption to the policy has been made available to those students.”
The July 20 Liberty Counsel letter calls on the college to accept the students’ requests for exemptions from being vaccinated based on religious grounds – or else the college would face legal actions.
VCOM-Louisiana maintains that both Landry and Liberty Counsel have failed to consider the school’s provisions for requesting vaccine exemptions. In addition, VCOM students have the option of deferring their admission by one year or delaying the patient care portions of their instruction until after the COVID-19 vaccines get formal Food and Drug Administration approval, the college said in its statement.
“VCOM has no interest in being in the middle of any political battle,” Shepard Rawlins’ email states. “Their concern is, and always has been, for the health of the students, employees and patients that VCOM students will see in their early clinical experiences this fall.”
Students who are exempted from getting the vaccine do have to wear masks while they are within the college building, according to the statement. This is not a policy of discrimination but a way to ensure the safety of other students and employees, the college said.
An allegation by Liberty Counsel that the college has tolerated a “snitch” program directed at unvaccinated students is “ridiculous,” according to the college’s statement.
In May, Landry sent a letter to Louisiana State University emphasizing that COVID-19 vaccines cannot be mandated because they have been approved only on an emergency-use basis.