Supreme Court denies NYC public school teachers’ challenge to block COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The Supreme Court has denied a challenge from New York City public school teachers to block Mayor Bill de Blasio’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate from going into effect today.
US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ruled in favor of the city Friday – allowing the mandate to go ahead and paving the way for up to 7,500 unvaccinated teachers to be out of work come Monday.
A group of four teachers has sent an emergency petition to Sotomayor Thursday asking her to halt the mandate.
They argued the mandate not only places an ‘unconstitutional burden’ on the city’s 148,000 school workers, but also ‘threatens the education of thousands of children.’
The petition claimed teachers’ rights are being violated because they do not have the option to undergo regular COVID-19 testing instead of getting the shot.
Teachers across all public schools in the Big Apple were given up until 5pm Friday to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs.
Unlike most vaccine mandates put in place such as by the federal government and private businesses across the country, the rule does not allow unvaccinated employees to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing instead of getting the shot.
Yet, other New York municipal workers – including NYPD cops – have been given that testing option.
When the school day starts the following Monday – October 4 – all teachers and staff arriving for work across the city’s public schools must have received at least their first dose of the vaccine.
Anyone still unvaccinated by the deadline, will be placed on unpaid leave until September 2022.
New York City public school teachers have asked the Supreme Court for an emergency order to block Mayor Bill de Blasio’s (pictured) COVID-19 vaccine mandate from going into effect
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Pre-K students and staff at Phyl’s Academy in Brooklyn, New York City. Teachers across all public schools in the Big Apple have until 5pm Friday to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs
The New York Department of Education employs 148,000 school workers, including 75,000 teachers.
De Blasio said Monday that 87 percent of all Department of Education employees in the city were already at least partially vaccinated, including 90 percent of teachers and 97 percent of principals.
This means around 7,500 teachers – 10 percent of all those in the city’s public schools – could be out of work by Monday.
Vaccination rates are lower – 82 percent – among other school workers, meaning thousands of support staff could also face the chop, plunging hundreds of schools into staffing crises.
Sotomayor, who is the justice for the second circuit including New York, Connecticut and Vermont and so rules on emergency matters in the Big Apple, rejected the teachers’ last-ditch effort to block the mandate without giving any explanation.
She also declined to direct the emergency request to the full Supreme Court to review.
In the 12-page petition, filed Thursday, the group of teachers argues the City of New York, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene ‘created an Executive Order that places an unconstitutional burden on public-school teachers’ – something they describe as the ‘epitome of government overreach.’
The mandate ‘forces unvaccinated public-school employees to go on unpaid leave for nearly a year’, the petition says.
The group say the mandate unfairly forces teachers out of work when other city employees including those who are also in contact with children can instead opt for weekly testing.
The group of teachers argue that the mandate not only places an ‘unconstitutional burden’ on educators but also ‘threatens the education of thousands of children’
They argue that teachers should also have the option to undergo COVID-19 testing rather than being forced to take the shot.
‘As the number of unvaccinated is small compared to that of the vaccinated, there is no basis to mandate vaccines in lieu of weekly testing,’ the petition said.
As well as the impact on school staff, the petition argues the mandate also ‘threatens the education of thousands of children in the largest public-school system in the country and violates the substantive due process and equal protection rights afforded to all public-school employees.’
The petition was sent to Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor (pictured)
A spokesperson for the Department of Education pushed back on the petition telling CBS Local that the mandate is ‘firmly grounded in science and the expertise of public health officials from across the nation.’
The last-ditch effort from the group comes after weeks of toing and froing over the mandate which saw a temporary block lifted Monday.
A Brooklyn judge earlier ruled in favor of the city, which led to a group of teachers filing an appeal.
Last Friday, an appeals judge sided with the teachers, putting a block on the mandate going into effect.
This meant the city couldn’t enforce the rule until a three-judge panel decided whether it was constitutional, forcing de Blasio to amend his rules and allow for weekly testing of staff.
But a panel of federal judges reversed this decision Monday evening, lifting the block and giving de Blasio’s administration the green light to enforce the mandate.
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan dissolved the temporary injunction Monday evening and denied the original motion.
De Blasio announced back in August that all school employees – including teachers, custodians and cafeteria workers – were required to get at least their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination by September 27.
On Monday, following the different rulings, the mayor said workers had up until 5pm Friday.
‘If you have not have gotten that first dose Friday, 5 p.m., we will assume you are not coming to work on Monday and you will not be paid starting Monday and we will fill your role with a substitute or an alternative employee,’ he said.
