The San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) has fired 73 employees who refused to comply with the district’s vaccine mandate.
The Hill reports that the district had previously set January 24th as the final date by which employees had to either get fully vaccinated or face termination. Of the 73 employees who were ultimately fired, 12 were credentialed employees, while the remaining 61 employees were non-credentialed. Credentialed employees include teachers, counselors, and principals, while non-credentialed employees include cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and custodians.
Students had a separate deadline of December 20th to be fully vaccinated; students who refuse to comply are refused onto school grounds and must continue with remote learning from home.
The district does allow exemptions for medical reasons or personal beliefs. SDUSD spokesman Richard Barrera said that over 840 employees have been granted such exemptions. But Barrera nevertheless falsely claimed that the mandate has proven that vaccines work.
“It proves that vaccine mandates work and are necessary,” Barrera said. “We will be at 100 percent of our staff that is either fully vaccinated or has received an approved accommodation, and with very little loss of staff. What it shows is that staff who had been reluctant to get the vaccine are getting it as a result of the mandate.”
SDUSD had previously set additional requirements for students to be vaccinated in order to attend in-person classes, but that mandate was struck down by a judge last month, who ruled that the district could not impose any mandates that exceeded the state-level requirements.