“The city Department of Education has axed another 850 teachers and classroom aides — bringing the total to nearly 2,000 school employees fired for failure to comply with a vaccine mandate increasingly struck down in court,” the New York Post reports.
About 1,300 DOE employees who took a year’s unpaid leave — with benefits — agreed to show proof of COVID-19 inoculation by Sept. 5 or be “deemed to have voluntarily resigned.”
The NYC DOE COVID-19 jab mandate first went into effect on October 29, 2021.
850 more unvaxxed NYC teachers, aides fired for not complying with mandate https://t.co/Gkp125omFE pic.twitter.com/62qgMmzgYk
— New York Post Metro (@nypmetro) September 17, 2022
Despite the CDC’s changed guidelines to treat vaccinated and unvaccinated the same, discrimination against unvaccinated workers continues.
The NYC DOE doesn’t want to relinquish its power trip against teachers and aides that stood up for medical freedom and bodily autonomy.
The authoritarian agency would rather teachers risk blood clots, myocarditis, Guillen-Barre Syndrome, and over 1,000 other side effects.
The firings come on the heels of NYC’s worker shortage crisis, as explained in this prior report.
From the New York Post:
Of those staffers, 450 got a shot by the deadline and “are returning to their prior schools or work locations,” DOE officials told The Post. They include some 225 teachers and 135 paraprofessionals.
The 850 let go makes roughly 1,950 DOE staffers terminated since the vaccine mandate took effect on Oct. 29, 2021.
Rachelle Garcia, an elementary school teacher in Brooklyn for 15 years and mother of two, worked fully in person during the pandemic and never got sick, she said.
But she refused to get vaccinated, finally taking leave after the DOE denied her requests for a religious exemption.
“I really put my eggs in one basket, hoping and praying that at the last minute our mayor would turn everything around in time for me to go back to work,” she said.
Mayor Adams never lifted the vaccine mandate, while other cities and states are dropping such requirements due to relaxed CDC guidelines.
“I’m angry, I’m hurt, to be cast aside like I was nothing. Because I couldn’t give a proper goodbye to my students, other teachers told me they kept asking, ‘When is Ms. Garcia coming back?’ That made me cry so much.”
Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) called for the “absurd” mandate to be rescinded.
SI LIVE reported:
The new school year is in full swing, and while some coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions were eased for students and staff members in New York City public schools, some vaccine mandates remain in place — a situation that Councilman Joe Borelli (R-South Shore) calls “absurd.”
Borelli, who is part of the Common Sense Caucus in the City Council, explained that the group met with Mayor Eric Adams and city Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan last week to discuss easing coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandates for public and private employees, which includes teachers and school staff, and allow all vaccinated and unvaccinated students to participate in sports and after-school activities. The caucus also asked for an end to a vaccine mandate for all visitors — including parents — to school buildings.
“We confronted the mayor and the health commissioner on the need to rescind these mandates that no longer have any basis in public health rationale,” said Borelli.
Teachers and paraprofessionals miss their children.
And their children miss them.
Yet, the NYC DOE demands they risk their lives with an experimental pharmaceutical to enter the building.
They should be ashamed of themselves.
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