The following is an excerpt from The Defender.
Unvaccinated New York City teachers were reportedly “flagged” and their fingerprints sent to the FBI, according to an affidavit filed in federal court last week.
In the New Yorkers for Religious Liberty Inc. v. The City of New York appeals hearing, challenging the now-rescinded vaccine mandate for city employees, plaintiff’s attorney John Burch said that “flagged” teachers were labeled with “problem codes” that impact their ability to get another job.
The allegations were based on a June 2022 affidavit written by Betsy Combier, president of the due process advocacy group Advocatz, detailing how the New York City Department of Education (DOE) flagged unvaccinated teachers without evidence of misconduct and sent their information, including fingerprints “to the national databases at both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and [New York’s] State Division of Criminal Justice Services.”
Sujata Gibson, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, commented on these revelations to The Defender:
“These are hardworking teachers and educators with excellent employment records who dedicated their lives to teaching in the New York City public schools. It is unacceptable that the DOE would place problem codes on their employment files and flag their fingerprints with the FBI simply because they were not able or willing to get vaccinated.
“This was never about public health. This was about punishing those whose religious and other beliefs don’t line up with corporate interests in an effort to make it impossible to dissent.”
Michael Kane, national grassroots organizer for Children’s Health Defense and founder of Teachers For Choice, reported the “problem codes” on Feb. 9, one day after the hearing in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Unvaccinated teachers denied jobs due to the ‘problem code’
According to Combier’s affidavit, the DOE assigns “problem codes” to the personnel files of employees that “should not be hired due to unexplained misconduct of some kind.”
The affidavit stated:
“When the DOE puts a problem code in the employee’s personnel file, it also places a flag on the employee’s fingerprints, which is then sent to the national databases at both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
“I have represented more than 15 DOE employees before the DOE’s Office of Personnel Investigation in proceedings in which they requested the removal of their problem codes. The flag has several names such as ‘problem code,’ ‘pr’ code, ‘pc’ code, ‘ineligible,’ and ‘no hire/inquiry’ code; however, all refer to a salary block, whatever title it is given.”
Attorneys for the city did not deny the veracity of this information in court.
[Michael] Kane, wrote, “Attorney Susan Paulson who was defending NYC stated that educators fired for declining Covid vaccination were not removed for misconduct, but rather for not meeting a requirement for employment.”
“If there was no misconduct, why are unvaccinated educators’ fingerprints sent to the FBI?” asked Kane.
Read more at this link.
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