Miami private school, citing false claims, tells vaccinated teachers they can’t be around students

A school in Miami is coming under fire after it reportedly sent out a letter telling vaccinated employees they could not be around students, citing false claims linking the vaccine to changes in women’s reproductive cycles.

According to The New York Times, Leila Centner, a co-founder of the Centner Academy in Miami, sent out the letter to staff last week.

In the letter, Centner reportedly told employees that they would not be allowed to be around students if they received the coronavirus vaccine, pointing to reports she claimed that “surfaced recently of non-vaccinated people being negatively impacted by interacting with people who have been vaccinated.” 

“Even among our own population, we have at least three women with menstrual cycles impacted after having spent time with a vaccinated person,” Centner also stated in the letter, according to the Times.

The misinformation comes as medical experts have continued to debunk false claims alleging that coronavirus vaccines could be transferred from those who have received the shot to others who have not. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has told people that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective while also recommending Americans receive the vaccine as soon as they are eligible. So far, according to the agency, millions have received the vaccines under what the CDC has called “the most intense safety monitoring in U.S. history.”

In addition to those claims shared in the letter, Centner also reportedly told employees they would have to disclose to the school whether they received the vaccine. In the event that they did receive a vaccine, teachers would not be able to come back to the school, pending clinical trials for the vaccine, the Times reported.

And that’s if their positions are “still available at that time,” the letter also reportedly stated.

The letter follows a bulletin issued by the school on its website last month titled “Medical Freedom From Mandated Vaccines,” which told parents, “Your son or daughter may not be able to attend their first day of school until they are fully vaccinated. While these regulations were established to help protect all children, the amount of unknown risks associated with vaccinations will have you seriously second-guessing whether this policy should be upheld.”

The month before that bulletin, the school’s founders also had anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. come to speak to students. The visit came the same month Kennedy saw his Instagram account taken down over his anti-vaccine advocacy and coronavirus claims.