New York City has seen three prominent cases dealing with workers who were fired for not receiving the COVID-19 vaccination, including New Yorkers for Religious Liberty v. NYC, Kane v. de Blasio, and Keil v. NYC, according to a report written by one of the plaintiffs, Michael Kane.
Kane, who is the founder of Teachers for Choice and was a teacher in NYC for 14 years before being fired by the state for refusing the shot, wrote that the three cases were consolidated and heard by the 2nd Circuit with open ears. In the case in which he is named a plaintiff, attorney John Bursch introduced an affidavit (included below) written by Betsy Combier, the president of a paralegal consulting firm who has represented hundreds of clients “in proceedings with the New York City Department of Education (‘DOE’).”
Combier writes that the DOE gives unvaccinated teachers a “problem code” label “that places a flag on the employee’s fingerprints, which is then sent to the national databases at both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Division of Criminal Justice Services.”
Recounting the federal court proceeding on February 8, Kane reports that attorney Susan Paulson, who is defending NYC, stated that unvaccinated teachers were not fired for “misconduct, but rather for not meeting a requirement for employment.” Kane then questions why their fingerprints have been sent to the FBI if there was no misconduct.
He has since appeared on Fox News and called for an investigation into the situation.
After a NY judge ordered the city to reinstate workers fired over the mandate in December 2022, Mayor Eric Adams has recently doubled down and appealed the decision, according to NPR. However, for the private sector, Adams announced his intent to lift the mandate.
Adams recently announced that the vaccine mandate will be lifted for city workers as well, but the 1,780 workers fired will still not be reinstated, according to National Review.
“With more than 96 percent of city workers and more than 80 percent of New Yorkers having received their primary COVID-19 series and more tools readily available to keep us healthy, this is the right moment for this decision,” Adams said, adding that people should continue to get boosted.
