PRESS RELEASE: Unvaccinated Tenured Teachers Take NYC to the Highest Court in the State

Will NYS Court of Appeals uphold government employees’ due process protections?

PRESS RELEASE:

Contact: Michael Kane: Teachers for Choice

Email: teachersforchoice@substack.com

Website: teachersforchoice.org / teachersforchoice.substack.com

Date: September 11, 2024. Rally at 1pm, Court hearing at 2pm,

Location: NY State Court of Appeals, 20 Eagle St. Albany NY, 12207

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September 9, 2024, Albany, New York — On September 11, 2024, at 2pm, the New York State Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments on the fundamental question of employee due process. Should government employees - in this case tenured teachers - receive their statutory and legal due process, or is the government allowed to ignore state law during a public health crisis?

In 2021, NYC ordered a vaccine mandate for New York City employees that conflicted with state law and employment contracts. Unvaccinated tenured teachers were fired for not getting the COVID shot, but were never provided the due process that is required by state law. That due process comes to any tenured teacher removed from their position in the form of a 3020a hearing. No such hearing was given to any of these teachers currently suing NYC, in flagrant violation of a state law that has protected tenured teachers for over 120 years.

The vaccine mandate itself was passed without a legislative process and was implemented to supersede state laws and contractual obligations. All of the lower Courts have ruled against these tenured teacher plaintiffs thus far, as they wrongly believe that NYC as an employer can ignore state due process laws in the face of a public health issue.

Attorney Jimmy Wagner is representing plaintiffs in this important hearing on September 11. Wagner spoke at length about these cases on a CHD TV interview with Michael Kane along with one of the plaintiff’s he is representing, Rachel Maniscalco. Teachers for Choice is planning a peaceful rally at the courthouse on September 11 starting at 1pm.

“This is an absolutely critical case,” said Michael Kane, founder of Teachers for Choice.

“For the past four years I have been fighting to stop medical mandates as a requirement for employment in NYC and NY state. But today’s case represents much more than medical mandates. If these cases lose, it means New York State labor law is effectively meaningless. It is outrageous that the UFT and Michael Mulgrew have refused to provide even an ounce of support to these tenured teachers bravely fighting this madness.”

The United Federation of Teachers (UFT) is the teachers union in NYC, and the largest local union in the country. When attorney Jimmy Wagner reached out to the UFT asking them for an amicus brief supporting these cases fighting to secure tenure law in NY State, the union declined to provide any support whatsoever.