After years of testing and treating her, we now know that she has an overactive immune system. Due to Mary’s overactive immune system, she cannot tolerate any preservatives or artificial ingredients. Mary has a severe gluten sensitivity and is allergic to casein, etc. She is on an all-natural diet, and on a strict regimen to help support and strengthen her gastrointestinal tract and immune system. Dyes, preservatives, and unnatural substances all make her violently sick. She is brave and remains strong through her struggles because of her faith in God and the positive people that are put in our path. We are all very proud of her.

In 2010 we applied for a religious exemption from vaccinations and were guaranteed by the director of the school that everything was set and she would be able to attend school because of her religious exemption. In 2012, Mary’s health took a turn for the worse and, after being hospitalized, our family doctor told me that Mary qualified for a medical exemption. He said that vaccination would compromise her immune system and stated that “It is my medical opinion that Mary Check cannot tolerate any insults, in even the slightest amounts, to her immune system without putting her at risk for anaphalaxis, which include, vaccines, medications, and certain foods.” Still with the religious exemption in place, I didn’t think it was necessary to apply for a medical exemption as well, just yet, since I was told that the religious exemption was acceptable. When Mary entered kindergarten, I spoke with the principal of the elementary school and told her about my medical and religious exemptions, so she could get to know Mary’s situation. I told the principal that I would be using Mary’s religious exemption, but I also gave her my medical exemption application to put on file as well, because I was new to the public school system and didn’t know what they needed. I trusted the school system and they failed me. In October, that medical exemption application that I did not want to be filed was mysteriously handed into the Board of Health. In fact, I did not even apply for a medical exemption. The medical exemption application resulted from a clerical error. I was told that I would be able to proceed with a religious exemption, but, when I went to the school to address the situation, it was too late.

I was denied within 24 hours of application. Even though this medical exemption was not meant to go through at this point in time, Mary was denied her medical rights and she was kicked out of school. I was accused of trying to skirt around my denied medical exemption by applying for a religious exemption; the fact that I applied for a religious exemption in 2010 was completely ignored. I had to go to federal court to prove that my religious exemption was legitimate and to sue the Board of Education. My daughter’s medical issues are what made me pick up my Bible and read it every day and drew me closer to my beliefs that God made the body perfect and pure, and I don’t want to put any impurities into her body based on my deepest truths, which comes from the word of the Lord.

While I believe that doctors are here to help heal the sick and I value their place on this earth, I do not have blind faith in medical professionals. They are human beings, and we are told by the Lord that we are not to put our complete faith in anyone else but Him. I respect my pediatrician’s advice, but, ultimately, I have to base my informed decisions on my own research, my faith, and my instincts as a parent. I get a diagnosis from the doctor and it does not go ignored. We work together on treating Mary to suit her needs. I have researched what poisons are put into these vaccinations, and I do not believe that it is God’s will to put them into our bodies. Immunizations contain unnatural substances that are injected into the bloodstream.

Winning this case will set new case law, but I am completely financially depleted in my battle, and I need your help in this fight for freedom. Mary represents the many children in the United States in need of legal representation to protect their health and safety. In supporting Mary’s choice, you are supporting parents’ and doctors’ rights to choose what is in the best interest of their children and patients. Whether or not you are pro-vaccination or pro-vaccination choice, this cause deals with the right of a parent to choose or refuse what vaccinations are given to their children. All parents should have the right to choose what kind of medical treatment their children should receive, and, if a person has religious beliefs contrary to a medical treatment, our constitutional right to the free exercise of religion should be protected and not subject to the review of one person, as it is in the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

What touched me so close to my heart is when Barbara Loe Fisher, president of the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) said, “We as parents, who know and love our children better than anyone else, we by U.S. law and a larger moral imperative, are the guardians of our children until they are old enough to make life and death decisions for themselves. We are responsible for their welfare, and we are the ones who bear the grief and the burden when they are injured or die from any cause. We are their voice and, by all that is right in this great country and in the moral universe, we should be allowed to make a rational, informed, voluntary decision about which diseases and which vaccines we are willing to risk their lives for without fearing retribution from employees of the state.” Argue with us. Educate us. Persuade us. But don’t track us down and force us to violate our moral conscience and beliefs, or criticize our doctors’ professional opinion in the medical approach they choose to take, putting the best interest of their patients first.