Rastafarians stage protest at Nevis Education Office;
Child not immunised, turned away from school

By Pauline Waruguru
Nevis Reporter-SKNVibes.com

MARION HEIGHTS, Nevis - A cross-section of Rastafarians joined a protest yesterday morning (Monday) called by parents of a five-year-old Nevisian child who was not allowed to join Charlestown Primary School because he has not been vaccinated.

According to the child’s parents, Yejide Parry and Ras Iroy, they had placed an application in June for the child’s enrolment at the Charlestown Primary School for the academic year beginning in September, but on taking the child to school yesterday, he was not accepted because of not being vaccinated.

“The same school violated the rights of my first son because he had dreadlocks,” the mother said, adding he has since been reinstated. 

“They turned us away because the child is not immunised and they referred us to the Education Department.”

“Vaccines are dangerous to children. They are agents alien into a child’s body,” Parry said and claimed that vaccines are made from foetuses, monkey tissues and mercury.

The father of the child said Rastafarian religion does not subscribe to the universal requirement that children be vaccinated, “we do not trust vaccines”.

Parry said she believed in herbs, not in vaccines. 

Contacted for comment, the Chief Education Officer, Jennifer Hodge, and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Joseph Wiltshire, said they had nothing to say.
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