NEW YORK – As of Monday, October 4, some 148,000 New York City public school employees must present at least their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine or face suspension without pay.
This despite several attempts to reboot the measure and after US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Friday denied a request from city teachers to block the COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said the number of unvaccinated employees is shrinking: As of Friday morning, 90% of Education Department employees, 93% of teachers, and 98% of principals had received at least one dose of a vaccine. For teachers in particular, that’s three percentage points more than last Monday.
The vaccination deadline had been delayed de Monday through Friday after a legal battle between the city and a group of teachers who oppose the measure.
Judge Sotomayor’s decision that was given at the last minute on Friday came on her own, without referring the case to the full court.
“In attempting to combat the COVID-19 virus, the City of New York, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene created an Executive Order imposing an unconstitutional burden on public school teachers,” the attorneys wrote. of the teachers in their 12-page petition.
The state order would violate a teacher’s fundamental right to practice a profession, lawyers told the court, and teachers who do not receive the vaccine will never be able to return to work.
Mayor de Blasio said he was confident the courts would support the city’s efforts to exclude unvaccinated staff from school buildings, where they could infect co-workers or children who are too young who do not qualify for vaccination.
The mandate, which should have started on Monday, it had been blocked prior to that date, prompting the mayor for a few days to implement the weekly testing policy for staff who were not vaccinated.
Following Friday’s decision allowing the measure to be implemented as of Monday, Lou Gelormino, the Staten Island teachers’ attorney, said in a statement: “We are extremely disappointed with the decision of the United States Supreme Court. The voices of our teachers deserved to be heard. Vaccination mandates for adults have not been discussed in court in over a century. These unconstitutional edicts will continue across the country until our courts decide to hear our argument that the Government has gone too far. Our children are the ones who will suffer the most. Teachers who love our children so much will no longer be in the classroom. “
The mayor also said that although there is a high percentage of teachers vaccinated the school district has substitutes who are ready in case of an educator shortage.
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