1901 Legal Paper Book or Abstract: A Case of a Female Philadelphia School Teacher who Refused to be Vaccinated.

A teacher outlines her suit against the Board of Education and its Committee on Hygiene

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Controversies over vaccines in public schools go back over 100 years. In 1901, Philadelphia teacher Mary Helen Lyndall refused to be vaccinated for smallpox. She denied the efficacy of vaccination and argued that it was “exceedingly harmful and injurious to the community and to the individuals vaccinated.”

The Board of Education had passed a resolution requiring all teachers to have been vaccinated within the past five years. When Lyndall, who taught at the city’s High School for Girls, presented her slightly older certificate of vaccination, it was rejected by the board chairman and by her principal. They demanded Lyndall be vaccinated again. Lyndall refused and was suspended by the principal. She then took her case to Common Pleas Court. As part of her pleading before the court Lyndall’s lawyers prepared this Bill of Complaint or “paper book” outlining her case and the legal issues involved.

Lyndall’s paper book calls into question the regulating authority of the Board of Education and its Committee on Hygiene to suspend her for refusing vaccination:

Thus it will be seen that neither the Committee on Hygiene nor the Committee on High School for Girls nor the Board of Education have passed any rules or regulations concerning the suspension of a teacher who refuses to be revaccinated in accordance with the orders issued for that purpose. The only body that has taken any action in regard to vaccinating teachers was the Committee on Hygiene… This action was taken by the Committee on Hygiene without any authority from the Board of Education so to do. … The suspension of Miss Lyndall was brought about solely by the individual act of Dr. Morton [Chairman of the Board of Education’s Committee on High School for Girls] without any authority from the Committee on High School for Girls or the Board of Education or the Committee on Hygiene Dr. Morton without authority from the Committee ordered Prof. Rohrer [Principal of High School for Girls] who has no authority to suspend Miss Lyndall pending action of the Committee on Hygiene.

The paper book now outlines the legal questions at issue:

The sole question in the case appears to be whether Dr. Morton in his individual capacity as Chairman had the right to suspend Miss Lyndall without authority from the Board of Education or the Committee on Hygiene or the Committee on High School for Girls. A further question is that the act of 1854 provides that no teacher can be removed except for incompetency, cruelty, negligence or immorality. A still further question is whether any teacher can be removed or suspended until charges are first formally made against her and hearing had as is provided by the school laws.

At this point, Lyndall’s argument begins to sound like today’s arguments against vaccination:

Another question is that the order to revaccinate Miss Lyndall cannot be justifiable upon the grounds of public policy of alleged protection from smallpox as complainant alleges that vaccination does not prevent smallpox or the spread thereof but on the contrary is exceedingly harmful and injurious to the community and to the individuals vaccinated.

One wonders why Lyndall was even vaccinated in the first place. In any event, she was refusing it now. Lyndall v. The Committee on the High School for Girls of the Board of Public Education of Philadelphia et al. presents an interesting case whose issues still resonate today: the right of individual liberty and concerns for public safety and due process. These issues are very much part of today’s controversies over vaccination.

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