Supreme Court rejects New York teachers’ request to block school vaccination mandate

Court judge Sonia Sotomayor on Friday rejected a request by a group of New York teachers to block a COVID vaccine warrant for school teachers.

New York City began enforcing COVID vaccinations on school staff on Friday. Announced in August, the ordinance prompted some teachers to meet the deadline to avoid suspension or possibly loss of their jobs.

Sotomayor provided no explanation for rejecting the emergency injunction filed by teachers and did not have a court vote on the matter, according to ABC7 New York. It has the discretion to process the request on its own because it is the justice administering the second circuit.

Teachers Rachel Maniscalco, Evelyn Arancio, Diana Salomon and Corinne Lynch filed a petition with the Supreme Court on Thursday over the emergency injunction, claiming the warrant violated their rights.

“If allowed to go into effect, the Aug. 23 decree will force thousands of unvaccinated public school employees to lose their jobs while other municipal employees, including those with important contact with children, are allowed to withdraw from the weekly vaccination mandate. COVID-19 testing, “the teachers said in their petition.” As the number of unvaccinated is small compared to that of vaccinated, there is no basis for mandating vaccines instead of weekly testing.

In response to Sotomayor’s rejection of the request, lawyers for public school teachers Mark Fonte and Louis Gelormino expressed disappointment with the SCOTUS decision and said the government “went too far” in reference to vaccine mandates. COVID.

“The voices of our teachers deserved to be heard. Vaccination mandates for adults have not been debated in court for over a century. These unconstitutional decrees will continue across the country until our Courts decide to hear our argument that the government has gone too far, ”they said in a statement.

Fonte and Gelormino added that the loss of public school staff due to suspension or potential termination during the vaccine’s tenure will have an impact on students.

“The teachers our children love so much will no longer be in the classroom. The safety of our children will be compromised by the absence of security guards in the schools,” they said.

On Monday, the 2nd United States Court of Appeals in Manhattan overturned a temporary injunction intended to prevent the execution of the warrant.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said as of Friday 90% of Education Department employees, 93% of teachers and 98% of principals were vaccinated and had received at least one dose of the vaccine. .

“Ultimately that mandate worked and the goal was to protect children, including our youngest children who cannot yet be vaccinated, and to make sure families knew schools would be safe,” the mayor said on MSNBC on Friday. Morning Joe.

Teachers’ unions have previously argued that the mandate will lead to a massive shortage of teachers in schools, but de Blasio insisted the city has many vaccinated substitute teachers who could replace them.

“We have a lot of substitute teachers, a lot of young people in particular who want to enter the teaching profession, who are ready, willing and able, who are vaccinated, who will take on these roles immediately,” said de Blasio. CNN Wednesday.

News week contacted the Supreme Court, Fonte and Gelormino for comment, but did not receive a response until the publication date.