“Give It to Him Anyway”: Teen Given COVID-19 mRNA Shot Without Consent — State Supreme Court Says Family Can Sue
The PREP Act can’t override constitutional protections, court rules.
As reported by Fox News,
A North Carolina mother and her son can sue a public school system and a doctors' group for allegedly giving the boy a COVID-19 vaccine without consent, the state Supreme Court ruled.
The ruling handed down Friday reverses a lower-court decision that a federal health emergency law prevented Emily Happel and her son Tanner Smith from filing a lawsuit.
Both a trial judge and the state Court of Appeals had ruled against the two, who sought litigation after Smith received an unwanted vaccine during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Smith was vaccinated in August 2021 at age 14 despite his opposition at a testing and vaccination clinic at a Guilford County high school, according to the family's lawsuit. The teenager went to the clinic to be tested for COVID-19 after several cases among his school's football team, the lawsuit says. He told staff at the clinic that he did not want a vaccination, and he did not have a signed parental consent form to receive one.
But when the clinic was unable to reach his mother, a worker instructed a colleague to "give it to him anyway."
Last year, the state’s intermediate appeals court unanimously sided with the school district and medical group, ruling that they were protected from lawsuits under the federal Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act. That law grants sweeping legal immunity to individuals and organizations involved in implementing public health "countermeasures" during a declared emergency.
However, in the latest decision, Chief Justice Paul Newby disagreed. Writing for the majority, he stated that the PREP Act does not block claims that involve violations of state constitutional rights. He emphasized that parents have a fundamental right to direct their children’s care and upbringing—and that individuals also have the right to refuse unwanted medical treatment, particularly when it’s not legally mandated.
This ruling clears the way for Emily Happel and her son Tanner Smith to pursue their case against the Guilford County Board of Education and the Old North State Medical Society for allegedly administering the COVID-19 shot without consent.
This case is yet another example of why the PREP Act is deeply problematic — it grants sweeping legal immunity during public health emergencies, even when consent is ignored or harm is done. Here, it nearly blocked a mother and son from seeking justice after the teen was given a COVID-19 mRNA shot without consent. Thankfully, the state constitution came through in the end.
Epidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough Foundation
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I hope the school is liable and not the taxpayer.
What a bunch of bastards the school and clinic workers are!