HILO, Hawai'i — A Hilo High School student who refused for religious reasons to undergo a test for tuberculosis will be homeschooled this semester after she suffered a setback in her legal case in Kona Circuit Court.

Alena Horowitz, 14, was allowed to attend classes at Hilo High this week under the terms of a temporary restraining order issued by Kona Circuit Judge Elizabeth Strance, but Strance on Thursday refused to extend that order.

That means the state Department of Health will bar Horowitz from the school unless she undergoes the TB test, something she will not do, said the girl's father, Leonard Horowitz.

Instead, Leonard Horowitz said he plans to homeschool his daughter and take her on a trip around the world this fall to further her education.

Leonard Horowitz said other parents have told him they plan to pursue the legal case he started in an effort to force the public school system to allow students to attend classes without taking the TB skin test.

Horowitz contends state law allows his daughter to claim an exemption from the TB testing on religious grounds because it violates her "Judeo-Christian" beliefs.

State law allows for an immunization exemption on religious grounds, but health officials contend that does not include TB testing.

Strance scheduled another hearing on the issue for Nov. 20. At that hearing, the state attorney general's office will ask that the case be dismissed because Leonard Horowitz is barred for technical reasons from pursuing the case on behalf of his daughter.

Deputy Attorney General Heidi Rian said Horowitz filed an identical suit challenging the state TB testing requirement in 2004, and that case was dismissed. At the time of the dismissal, the court specified Horowitz would not be permitted to file the same suit again in another court.

Rian said Horowitz also is barred from suing over the issue because he waited too long to file the case.

Statistics compiled by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that Hawai'i had the second highest TB case rate of any state in 2005, with a rate of 8.8 cases per 100,000 population.

A comparison of urban areas shows that in 2004, Honolulu had the 13th highest rate of TB cases among 107 metropolitan areas with populations greater than 500,000, according to statistics from the CDC.

Dr. Jessie Wing, chief of the state Department of Health's TB control program, said about 80 percent of the positive test results in Hawai'i are among immigrants.

Other states require TB testing for schoolchildren, but Wing said she does not know how many states have a law similar to Hawai'i's that mandates TB skin testing for all public school students.

Leonard Horowitz arranged for his daughter to be examined by a doctor in Idaho and declared free of tuberculosis, which Horowitz said would meet the requirements for TB screening in Idaho. However, Hawai'i health officials said the skin test is still required for Alena to attend Hilo High.

Horowitz holds a master's degree in public health, and he argues that it violates public health standards to require healthy schoolchildren to undergo TB skin testing.

He has authored a number of books on alternative medicine, and wrote one volume called "Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola — Nature, Accident or Intentional?"

In that book, Horowitz suggests AIDS and ebola were created in laboratories and spread by tainted hepatitis and smallpox vaccinations.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.