ERIN ELMORE: Judge rules NYC Teachers fired for turning down COVID-19 Vaccine deserve back pay

NYC educators who filed suit after they were terminated for refusing the COVId-19 vaccine must receive back pay, New York State Supreme Court Judge Ralph Porzio has ruled.

NYC educators who filed suit after they were terminated for refusing the COVId-19 vaccine must receive back pay, New York State Supreme Court Judge Ralph Porzio has ruled.

ad-image
A group of educators who took legal action after being terminated for their refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine will receive back pay.

State Supreme Court Judge Ralph Porzio has issued a ruling that will reward ten educators who sued the city for denying religious exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. According to Judge Porzio, the refusal to grant religious exemptions was unlawful and “capricious.”

“This Court sees no rational basis for not allowing unvaccinated classroom teachers in amongst an admitted population of primarily unvaccinated students,” Porzio wrote. “As such, the decision to summarily deny the classroom teachers amongst the Panel Petitioners based on an undue hardship, without any further evidence of individualized analysis, is arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable. As such, each classroom teacher amongst the Panel Petitioners is entitled to a religious exemption from the Vaccine Mandate.”

Like many cities across the country, New York City issued a vaccination policy in 2021 that required all educators to either receive the COVID-19 vaccine or be terminated. Many educators who requested religious exemptions to this policy were denied.

Sujata Gibson, the lead attorney representing the group of educators who filed the lawsuit, celebrated the court’s ruling, describing it as offering “relief” to the teachers and setting an “important precedent for all other teachers denied religious accommodation.”

The ten educators who initiated the lawsuit will receive back pay, including salaries, benefits, and pensions, and will be reinstated in their positions. However, the court’s decision applies exclusively to the plaintiffs in this specific case and does not extend to other educators in New York City who lost their jobs for the same reasons. The plaintiffs of the case attempted to make the lawsuit a class action suit, but that request was denied by the judge.

“Although the petitioners’ overall position is that the citywide panel did not provide relief to the vast majority of initial DOE applicants, and specifically that these petitioners did seek that review, the record before this court is insufficient to make any determination as to those claims,” judge Porzio explained in his ruling.

This piece first appeared at TPUSA.

Image: Title: teachers
ADVERTISEMENT

Opinion

View All

JACK POSOBIEC: GOP needs to 'Soros-max' after Wisconsin Supreme Court loss

"You can’t rely on big names like Trump and Elon to help us in every off-cycle election. You need a m...

REVEALED: WhatsApp messages that led to UK parents' arrest were sarcastic comments on hiring process

"Can you imagine what the 'action' is? Hello, 999, one of the school mums said something mean about m...

DAVID KRAYDEN: Poilievre’s dilemma: go more anti-Trump than the Liberals or hold his conservative base

More Canadians see Carney as the leader who can effectively negotiate with Trump, not Poilievre....

Meta begs Trump for help as EU prepares massive fines over alleged violations of Digital Markets Act: report

Meta is also set to receive a cease-and-desist order that will require changes to its business practi...