DEPEW, N.Y. (WKBW) — There are many milestones in a high school senior’s year that students dream of reaching. A Depew High School senior is missing out on several, after being removed from school over a vaccine booster.
"I just sit and scroll, there's really not much else I could do," Kayci Rae said. "It's more emotional with it being my senior year. I feel like I'm shunned from Depew."
She was escorted out of school on October 16.
"They wouldn't let me say goodbye to teachers, they wouldn't let me go into the classroom," Rae said. "I was in tears. It was hard, it was truly devastating, honestly."
It's all because she didn't get the meningitis booster after a bad reaction to the first dose she had in middle school.
"She had leg pain," Andrea Billi, her mother, said."You know, when you're younger, having growing pains? That's what we thought, then it progressed. Her legs will turn purple and go numb."
Rae said there are days it's hard to walk, and she had to miss class because of the pain. So doctors advised against the second dose and signed off on a medical exemption form.
The district sent a letter denying that exemption.
WATCH: 'Truly devastating: Depew High School Senior removed from school over vaccine booster
I reached out to the district, and they sent this statement:
"The District acknowledges that one or more former students of the District were excluded from attending school this year due lack of immunization. The student’s or students’ parents have been advised both verbally and in writing of the basis for such exclusion. Parent(s) are further advised that they become responsible for homeschooling their child(ren) or adhere to the process of immunization to permit their child(ren) to return to school. Further, parent(s) are advised of their right to appeal the school building’s decision to the New York State Commissioner of Education," the statement continues."
Rae was keeping up with schoolwork until her email account was recently disabled. Now, she sits at home waiting for answers.
Her friends have started a Change.org petition. Billi says she will be appealing the decision. She has hired a lawyer and filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights.
