NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A vaccine mandate for New York City school staff was supposed to take effect Monday, but is now on hold after a ruling by a judge.
Thousands of unvaccinated teachers are now waiting for a Wednesday court hearing to find out if they can keep working.
Some school staff held a protest in Foley Square, arguing the city should keep its current protocol for unvaccinated staff, which is to get tested weekly.
But Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday he’s confident by the end of the week a judge will rule in the city’s favor, which means those without one shot – will have to take unpaid leave.
Bronx school safety officer Taisha Richards says she will not get the vaccine and she’s willing to lose her job, but she doesn’t want to.
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“I don’t feel like your job should be at stake,” Richards said. “For my religious reasons, my civil rights and freedom – freedom of choice.”
School safety officers are the least vaccinated – less than half are.
The United Federation of Teachers has been encouraging staff to get vaccinated and believes around 3% are holding out, but president Michael Mulgrew says if the vaccine mandate takes effect, that amounts to 3,400 teachers replaced by subs, as per the mayor’s plan, not to mention other staffers.
“We’ve already had 500 schools report to us today and only, you know, only one third of the 500 said they’re ready,” Mulgrew said.
“We are not hearing instances of school with staffing we can’t address. Do they want to give up giving to kids? Paycheck? I think they’ll realize, get vaxxed, it is the right thing to do, and will get shot,” de Blasio said.
Staten Island special education teacher Rachel Maniscalco disputes that, and is one of the teachers suing the Department of Education in federal court.
“Hundreds at other schools. Hundreds at District 75 schools. They do not have the manpower. They do not have the subs. They are full of crap and they know we know,” Maniscalco said.
“It’s probably below two. It’s probably right below 3%. Uh, so that would be approximately 3,400, which, you know, sounds like a lot, but where we know we’re the largest school system in the country. So we have, we have a lot of teachers,” one person said.
“She like so many of other clients and other teachers have sincere concerns about the efficacy and the long term effects of the vaccine,” said attorney Mark Fonte. “They have a right to pursue their chosen profession and the government can’t arbitrarily interfere with that right.”
The court hearing is set for Wednesday at 10 a.m.
De Blasio said 7,000 staffers got the vaccine over the weekend.
from CBS New York https://ift.tt/2Izr88c
