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A Long Island teen has been kicked out of class after a judge tossed her vaccine exemption that was signed by a suspected fraudulent doctor who never even examined her.
The 17-year-old girl, a senior at Oceanside High School, will be barred from campus starting Thursday after losing her bid to force the district to give her an exemption from the hepatitis B and meningitis shots required by the state for 12th graders, according to court documents.
“School officials were well within their rights to request further supporting documentation,” Eastern District Judge Gary Brown wrote in Wednesday’s ruling.
The teen’s mom, only listed in court records as Jane Doe, sued the district in April 2025 after it refused to exempt her daughter from the final shot of the three-dose hepatitis B series and the second dose of the meningococcal vaccine, which protects against meningitis.
Her daughter, who appears as Sarah Doe, had previously been exempt from needing vaccines to attend public school for religious reasons until 2019, when New York lawmakers eliminated the exemption in the wake of a measles outbreak.
In order to stay in school after the exemption ended, Sarah Doe took 18 doses of vaccines over just six weeks, leading to what her mom claimed were “repeated serious medical crises,” according to court documents.
The mother had been previously granted a court order last year that let her daughter attend her junior year without the final hepatitis B shot after a doctor noted that she had an anaphylactic reaction, court papers said.
But this year’s exemption request also included the meningococcal vaccine, and was this time signed off by Dr. Carlos Rivera, who appears on the state’s Vaccine Fraud Awareness list and testified he had never examined or even spoken to the teen before filing it, court documents read.
The school’s doctor, Dr. Antwan Haskoor, repeatedly asked for more information backing up the request, including “a specific reason why Sarah Doe can’t receive the meningitis vaccine,” court papers said.
The teen’s mother initially claimed she provided supporting documentation, including her lab test results, however, she later admitted under oath that she straight-up lied, and in fact, never provided any additional paperwork the school requested in order to sign off on the request, the docs detailed.
Rivera also “repeatedly and falsely” claimed Haskoor never asked him for follow-up information, Brown wrote.
The school doctor’s account was backed up by phone records, emails and “admissions by several other witnesses,” according to the ruling.
Haskoor ultimately recommended rejecting the request.
The family then made a last-ditch effort with a second exemption from a Dr. Miller, described in court papers as an infectious disease specialist.
But Miller skipped the hearing, never responded to the school’s follow-ups and submitted a request “highly similar” to Rivera’s, Brown wrote. He added that the lab results Miller leaned on “do not appear to support his exemption request.”
Brown also blasted the family’s lawyers, Sujata Gibson and Chad Davenport, who sent a letter to every school board and district in the state after Brown ordered Oceanside to let the girl attend school.
In the letter, the attorneys claimed Brown’s ruling meant schools can’t question any doctor’s vaccine exemption, and warned districts could get sued if they did — with Brown calling the letter “a gross mischaracterization” of his decision and that the lawyers’ actions were “both factually incorrect and professionally inappropriate.”
The letter was posted on the website of Children’s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is listed on its letterhead as “Chairman on Leave” as he now serves as President Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary, court papers show.
The girl’s family attorney did not respond to requests for comment and it was not clear if she would agree to now get vaccinated and attend school.
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