(Ken Silva, Headline USA) During a Wednesday appeal hearing over a lawsuit challenging a New York Covid-19 vaccine mandate for teachers, a lawyer for the plaintiffs disclosed that teachers who refused the jab had their fingerprints sent to the FBI.
“When the city puts these ‘problem codes’ on employees who have been terminated because of their unconstitutional policies, not only do they have this flag in their files, but their fingerprints are sent with that flag to the FBI and the New York Criminal Justice Services,” said attorney John Bursch, who is representing 21 teachers and other Department of Education employees challenging New York City‘s vaccine mandate.
“So it impacts their ongoing ability to get employment at other places,” Bursch told the appeals panel.
Reacting to this news, plaintiff Michael Kane noted that New York City sending unvaccinated teachers’ fingerprints to the FBI undermines the city’s justification for firing them. New York City has argued that it did not fire the teachers for “misconduct,” but instead for not meeting a requirement for employment.
“If there was no misconduct, why are unvaccinated educators fingerprints sent to the FBI?” asked Kane, the founder of Teachers for Choice, an organization that promotes healthcare freedom for educators.
“I believe that unvaccinated NYC educators were being setup to be viewed as ‘right-wing extremists’ or even ‘terrorists.’”
Cane said he believes this latest revelation will spur another round of lawsuits.
In the meantime, it looks like Cane has an uphill battle in his case, which was dismissed by a lower court last August.
“Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that the public interest weighs in their favor. There is a strong public interest in vaccination to support the City’s schools safe reopening and to allow the children who attend daily to learn with as little risk as possible to them and their families,” U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald wrote last August in a decision ignoring scientific evidence about the vaccine’s ineffectiveness.
“This Court joins the long list of other courts who have upheld COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and holds that the defendants’ motion to dismiss is GRANTED.”
Kane and the other plaintiffs filed their appeal immediately after the decision last August. The appeals court did not indicate when it will return with a decision after Wednesday’s hearing.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
