Teachers and other school employees in New York faced a difficult decision recently: get the COVID jab or lose their jobs. Teachers had until Friday to get the vaccine or they would be fired, they were told. And the Department of Education made good on its threat on Monday, firing everyone who didn’t give in and get a needle shoved in their arms. But protesters shut down an NYC bridge after thousands of unvaccinated education workers were fired for taking a stand for their healthcare choices.
Education staffers — thousands of them — who did not get the jab by Friday found themselves without jobs on Monday. The Department of Education placed them on unpaid leave and banned them from school properties. They also had the option of quitting and accepting severance pay. This is wrong on every level. Naturally, demonstrations sprang up across New York City, with thousands of protesters shutting down the Brooklyn Bridge in protest of this disgusting attack on Americans’ livelihoods:
A crowd also gathered outside the New York City DOE in protest of this move:
Protesters held signs that read “my body my choice,” as well as “Choice not Mandates” and “We gave everything and now we’re nothing.”
“The most distressing thing is that we were told we were essential last year and now we’re just nothing,” one protester says. Teachers worked through the entire pandemic and were called essential workers — but now if they refuse the jab, they are garbage to the Left. The DOE’s decision affects 2,000 educators, according to the United Federation of Teachers.
Since Friday, about 18,000 succumbed to the forced jab, which brings the vaccination rate to 97 percent — well above the percentage needed to establish herd immunity in a population. Nevertheless, those who didn’t get the needle are being punished and their ability to support their families stolen away from them.
