NYC fires another 850 teachers and teaching aides after they failed to get COVID vaccine by Sept 5

The New York City Department of Education has fired 850 teachers and classroom assistants, in addition to 1,300 employees who took one year of unpaid leave.

It means nearly 2,000 school workers will be fired for failing to comply with the vaccine mandate imposed last October.

Of the 1,300 who went on leave for a year, 450 agreed to show proof of vaccination by September 5.

The rest are deemed to have resigned voluntarily.

The 450 who were shot, made up of 225 teachers and 135 paraprofessionals, are now “returning to their previous schools or work locations,” DOE officials said The New York Post.

Since the introduction of the vaccine mandate on October 29, 2021, about 1,950 employees of the department have now been laid off.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has never lifted the vaccine mandate for city schools, despite other cities and states dropping such requirements when the CDC relaxed its covid guidelines.

Despite protests, the city has fired a total of more than 2,600 municipal workers who were not fully vaccinated. Pictured, city council workers marched against vaccination mandate last October

In total, the city fired more than 2,600 municipal workers who were not fully vaccinated.

One teacher, Rachelle Garcia, told The Post how she had worked as a school teacher in Brooklyn for 15 years, including personally during the pandemic.

Garcia refused to be vaccinated and took leave after her requests for a religious exemption were rejected.

“I really put my eggs in one basket, hoping and praying that our mayor would turn things around at the last minute so I could get back to work,” she said.

“I’m angry, I’m hurt, to be cast aside as if I were nothing. Because I couldn’t say goodbye to my students very well, other teachers told me they kept asking, “When will Mrs. Garcia be back?” That made me cry so much.’

Dozens of teachers in New York City protested last October as the COVID-19 vaccination mandate went into effect

Last October, dozens of teachers in New York City staged a protest as then-Mayor Bill de Blasio’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate went into effect, urging some 18,000 educators to get vaccinated just before the deadline.

Protesters held placards that read ‘Resist medical tyranny!’ and “My Body, My Choice” for a Department of Education building in downtown Brooklyn.

A protester held a sign comparing anti-mandatory protesters to Rosa Parks, the civil rights icon who refused to sit in the back of the bus in the segregated South in the mid-1950s.

Nearly a year later, Mayor Adams had publicly berated office workers who criticized them for “staying home all day in your pajamas.”

Adams said the continuation of remote work worsened the city’s income gap.

Protesters held placards that read ‘Resist medical tyranny!’ and ‘My Body, My Choice’ for a Department of Education building in downtown Brooklyn in October 2021

“Time to come back.” I’m very happy to hear that business leaders are starting to say that,” Adams said after Labor Day.

A number of Wall Street banks have been pushing for a return to office since last year, with calls growing stronger, leading some to relax their Covid-19 restrictions.

Goldman Sachs is requiring its 10,000 employees in New York City to come to the office five days a week, eliminating the need for employees to wear masks or get tested for Covid to enter their office.

The new CDC guidelines state that individuals no longer need to be quarantined if they have been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 and no longer recommends social distancing.

Individuals who have no symptoms or whose symptoms improve can end their isolation after five days, according to the new guidelines.

Dozens of protesters marched across the Brooklyn Bridge last fall, rejecting vaccine mandate that went into effect