by Kevin McLaughlin
After a temporary hold was placed on New York City’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for public school employees, a three judge panel passed the mandate. The mandate will require all employees in NYC public schools such as teachers, principals, custodians, cafeteria workers, etc. to be vaccinated by an FDA approved vaccine by Friday, October 1st, 5 p.m. ET, meaning that all employees will be vaccinated by the time school starts on Monday.
Leading lawyers for teachers have said that they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. Attorney Mark Fonte, one of the more prominent attorneys working for teachers who do not want to be vaccinated, commented on his thoughts about the situation.
“With thousands of teachers not vaccinated the City may regret what it wished for. Our children will be left with no teachers and no security in schools.”
Another leading attorney for this situation, Louis Gelormino stated, “Quite many of [the the employees fighting the mandate] are not anti-vaccination. They’re anti-mandate.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio reiterated the reason for mandating vaccinations for employees in NYC public schools, which is to keep our children healthy and safe.
De Blasio also said that as of Monday, September 27th, 87% of NYC Department of Education employees are at least partially vaccinated, including 90% of teachers. Meaning that 1 in every 10 classrooms will be without a teacher (unless they receive the vaccine sometime before October 1st).
It will be interesting to see if the case amounts to anything in the future, but for now, all NYC public school employees in school on Monday, October 4th, will be vaccinated.
