PERTH Waldorf School administrator Jean-Michel David was forced to resign this week, days after a measles case at the school caused near-hysteria on social media.

Mr David left the Bibra Lake school on Tuesday following discussions with the school council and college of teachers, though no one from the school would discuss what led to his resignation, which came only a few months after his appointment.

The school hit the headlines this week after an unvaccinated year 10 student contacted measles while holidaying in Europe.

In a letter to parents on Thursday, acting administrator Mark Phillips said the school had followed health department advice and sent unvaccinated children from the year 10 class home until August 14.

Mr Phillips said the student’s brother had also held a party on the weekend, and the health department had contacted families who attended, instructing unvaccinated children to stay home until August 14.

All up 19 students were at home.

There have been no additional cases of measles reported, although because of incubation times it can’t be ruled out for a few more days.

“There is a lot of mis-information currently circulating about this issue,” Mr Phillips said.

“To be clear, our approach is not to discourage vaccination but to follow the advice given by the West Australian Department of Health.

“We are a school; it is not for us to give medical advice. We leave it to parents to make medical decisions for their children.”

Mr Phillips said the school had accepted an offer from the health department to hold additional vaccinations following the measles diagnosis, confirming what the Chook had been told by the department that media reports otherwise had been false. The department told the Herald the offer was made last Thursday, but was only accepted seven days later.

Mr Phillips says the resignation of Mr David had hampered the school’s ability to respond to some of the allegations.

When running for the upper house of Victorian state parliament in 2014, Mr David posted that proposed legislation making vaccinations mandatory was “anti-democratic”.

“To impose or penalise those who do nothing wrong except not partake of government-imposed injections is mindbogglingly autocratic, and has no place in a western democracy,” he wrote.

“It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that the views of minorities are respected, even if not conforming to the views of current science.”

Mr David previously worked at Melbourne Rudolf and Little Yarra Steiner schools.

He founded a Tarot association in 2003, has written several books on the subject, and was the principal organiser for the 2005 International Tarot Conference.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK