(NaturalNews) An emergency school board meeting was called by a member of the Oakland Unified School District on Tuesday to discuss whether or not they will comply with California's recently passed SB 277 mandatory vaccination law, which eliminates personal and religious belief exemptions for students in public and private schools.

The law is set to go into effect January 1, 2016, but could be halted if the #SB277Referendum is successful. Volunteers with the referendum have until September 25 to gather 366,000 signatures in order to temporarily block the law until it can be added to the 2016 Presidential ballot, which would allow Californians to vote on it.

Click here to donate to the referendum's GoFundMe page, which aims to keep kids in school by stopping SB277. The money will be used to compensate signature gatherers, as well as to counter Big Pharma advertising spending, which is sure to kick into gear once the initiative reaches the 2016 ballot.

If you're in California, click here to learn where you can sign the referendum.

Local religious leaders request formal board meeting to discuss implications of forced vaccines

The district's next step is call an official board meeting to discuss the possibility of asking the Department of Education to issue exemption waivers for schools that wish to opt out of SB 277 – and that the school board properly communicates both the benefits and the risks of mandatory vaccines – a position that's been unfairly weighted in favor of immunizations.

The Oakland Unified School District operates around 100 elementary, middle and high schools in Oakland, California, and is second to Los Angeles in terms of having a predominantly African American student population.

The Nation of Islam and the Oakland school district partnered with the movement to reverse SB 277 following a town hall meeting in the Bay Area in which community and health and education officials gathered to hear testimony from a panel of expert scientists regarding the dangers of forced vaccination.

After video of the informational meeting began to spread, parents soon started requesting meetings with their own local school boards, some of which have already responded and are in the process of organizing similar hearings.

"The meeting is a poignant example of a community using its voice to speak out against medical tyranny," said SB 277 Referendum volunteer Noelle Foster, who is helping lead the initiative.

"Community empowerment may be the only viable route given the climate of corporate-crony politics in California."

The Oakland school district's hesitancy to comply with mandatory vaccination speaks volumes, as the scientific literature shows that African American boys who receive the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine are at a much higher risk for developing autism.

Dr. Brian Hooker: Something is going on with African American community that's causing autism

Dr. Brian Hooker, Ph.D., biochemical engineer and scientist of scientists, has more than 25 years of experience working in the biotechnology industry and has published work in over 60 different scientific publications. Dr. Hooker is also the father of a vaccine-injured child.

"There is strong evidence in the scientific literature that African Americans who make up a large contingent of the Oakland School District may be more susceptible to vaccine injury and may also have increased susceptibility to neurological disorders such as autism," said Dr. Hooker via Skype at the informational meeting.

"The most reliable studies show that autism incidence is higher in African Americans as compared to Caucasians," he said.

Dr. Hooker pointed out that autism has a 25 percent higher incidence in African American communities than Caucasians, according to a nationwide study using U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's autism and developmental disabilities monitoring network.

Additionally, a 2014 study published in the journal Pediatrics shows the incidence of autism among African Americans in Los Angeles County was higher than that of whites; the effect was most profound in foreign-born blacks living in the U.S., with a 76 percent greater risk of autism than U.S.-born whites.

"In terms of vaccine injury, let me be clear, I am not anti-vaccine," said Dr. Hooker.

"I want safer vaccines that protect and not harm children. I want populations vulnerable to vaccine injury to be identified and protected as well," he added.

"You don't call someone who wants safer automobiles 'anti-car,'" Hooker said.

"Similarly, it's ridiculous to refer to vaccine safety advocates as 'anti-vaccine.'"

Dr. Hooker also mentioned the recent scandal in which CDC researcher Dr. Thompson covered up data in a 2003 paper showing that the MMR vaccine significantly increases a child's risk for autism, particularly in African American boys under the age of three. Click here to watch Dr. Hooker's speech.

SB277 is "coerced consent"

Also in attendance was Tina Kimmel, Ph.D., a former research scientist with the immunization branch of the California Department of Public Health.

Dr. Kimmel, former head of the State of California's personal belief exemption program says the purpose of such a program is "Democracy: to let people have a say in issues that directly concern them and their families.

"We still require informed consent for medical treatment in this country, right? " Dr. Kimmel asked.

"We're not like fascists, yet, right?" SB227 is "coerced consent," she said.

A round of applause quickly erupted after she asked, "Are we going to ask for a waiver, or just defy it?"

Click here to watch Dr. Kimmel's testimony, and here for the full two-hour meeting.

Additional sources:

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Pediatrics.AAPPublications.org

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