© Kevin C. Downs/The New York PostAnti-vax teachers and activists protest the mandate in NYC earlier this month.
In a petition to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, four plaintiffs argue for an emergency injunction that would block the city from removing unvaccinated teachers from schools at the end of the workday.
"This Court should grant the injunction after nearly two years of lockdowns, to prevent the largest public-school system in the country from further disrupting the education of hundreds of thousands of students who desperately need in-person teachers," the petition argues.
Currently, educators who do not have religious or medical exemptions and decline the shot will be put on unpaid leave with health insurance or leave the DOE with severance pay, officials said.
Several legal objections to the vaccination requirement have already been struck down, clearing the path for the removal of thousands of DOE workers and classrooms teachers.
Mayor de Blasio has argued that the mandate will safeguard against coronavirus outbreaks in the nation's largest school system.
Objectors argue that the requirement is an infringement on their rights and that they should not lose their livelihoods.
The DOE said this week that 87 percent of 130,000 DOE staffers and 91 percent of 78,000 teacher have gotten the jab.
The United Federation of Teachers warned this week that the mass removal of unvaccinated teachers could pose staffing problems at two thirds of city schools come Monday morning.
But de Blasio and schools Chancellor Meisha Ross-Porter have countered that they've assembled a pool of vaccinated substitutes and don't foresee major complications.
"Plaintiffs have no valid claims and have stated no basis for the Court's intervention," said Department of Education spokesperson Katie O'Hanlon. "Courts have spoken. The Health Department has the authority to implement a mandate that is firmly grounded in science and the expertise of public health officials from across the nation."
Lord I hope I'm wrong. Indeed, could see the USSC trying to do something that would show them saying, (after all their cucking out on the Trump election litigation and lies), to 'prove their manhood', their worth' here.
Like a desperate bully- naw, more like a cowardly teacher who pretends to protect students from bullies, but when the PC administration does the bullying, they're at the BLM rally.')My forecast: even if they issue a TRO, they'll cowardly cuck out on the final ruling.
R.C.