NYC teachers sue over vaccine mandate as thousands reportedly take to the streets

Teachers are among the many public employees once deemed to be heroes for their work throughout the pandemic but are now considered anathema if they refuse the COVID-19 vaccine.

A group of teachers in New York City has filed a lawsuit against the city, the Department of Education and the Department of Health amid Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine mandate which gave about 148,000 public school employees until 5 p.m. October 1st to get at least their first vaccine shot.

Failure to comply would result in suspension without pay when schools opened on October 4th.

Two NYC educators appeared on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends First” to discuss their pending lawsuit with host Ainsley Earhardt.

“It saddens me. I love my kids and I love the community that I work in and I love my school staff,” said Trinidad Smith, who’s been a teacher in Brooklyn for 20 years.

(Video: Fox News)

“I’m disappointed that I cannot be there with my students at this time,” Nwakaego Nwaifejokwu, a Bronx teacher of 11 years, told the host.

“I was really looking forward to coming back to the school year so that we can work with the students because they lost two years already. We thought this was going to be the year where we were going to make up for those losses,” she added.

The plaintiffs have asked the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency injunction blocking the implementation of New York City’s vaccine mandate for all public school employees as part of a series of larger suits currently stalling out.

“This is definitely the last attempt for us. And we hope that at least it buys us a little time so that we have an opportunity to be heard in the Supreme Court to at least plead our case because that is what this country is founded on is an opportunity to at least be heard,” Smith said.

Nwaifejokwu is hoping her religious exemption will be accepted, whereas Smith did not apply for any exemption.

“Because [the city] went in and made new stipulations as to what would be accepted and he nearly made it impossible for us to have any right under these new stipulations that [de Blasio] put in place,” Smith said.

The pair of teachers were not alone in their resistance to the mayor’s strong-arm tactics. On Tuesday, thousands of New Yorkers reportedly took to the streets in protest, aiming their disapproval as far up as President Biden and all the way down to de Blasio.

**(Language Warning)

Outside the Education Department building in Brooklyn and marching across the Brooklyn Bridge, they chanted “The system is corrupt,” “F**k Joe Biden and de Blasio,” “Hold the line,” and “We will not comply!” They also carried signs like “My Body My Choice,” “We gave everything and now we’re nothing” and “Choice not Mandates.”

On Monday, host Laura Ingraham of Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” welcomed both a New York public school teacher and a Stanford University doctor who were on the same side of the issue in opposing vaccine mandates.

The teacher, Michael Kane, was not allowed back in school on Monday, so he immediately filed for a temporary restraining order. He and nine more plaintiffs will appear for a hearing on Tuesday.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya described the ridiculousness that abounds over the willful ignorance of natural immunities that previously infected people necessarily have.

(Video: Fox News)

“A mandate that doesn’t acknowledge the scientific fact that they’re immune is not scientifically based.”

“I personally was infected despite being vaccinated, so what sense does it make to discriminate against the unvaccinated?” he wondered.

Ingraham cited the just-released Pfizer study that found diminishing effectiveness of the vaccine after only six months time.

Dr. Anthony Fauci maintains – at least for today – that the COVID vaccine is just like a measles, mumps and rubella shot.

However, Ingraham and her guests remarked, no one needs a booster for those diseases in order to gain employment or stay employed.

Of the difference between an MMR vaccine and a COVID vaccine, Bhattacharya said, “Dr. Fauci is conflating things intentionally in order to get his way.”

He concluded by expressing that forced vaccinations and mandates only further public distrust in health officials and policies.

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