Dear Commons Community,

New York City schools have been temporarily blocked from enforcing a vaccine mandate for its teachers and other workers by a federal appeals judge just before it was to take effect tomorrow.

On late Friday night, a judge for the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary injunction and referred the case to a three-judge panel on an expedited basis.

New York City Department of Education spokesperson Danielle Filson said officials were seeking a speedy resolution by the circuit court next week.

“We’re confident our vaccine mandate will continue to be upheld once all the facts have been presented, because that is the level of protection our students and staff deserve,” Filson said in an email.

She said more than 82% of department employees have been vaccinated.

While most school workers have been vaccinated, unions representing New York City principals and teachers warned that could still leave the 1 million-student school system short of as many as 10,000 teachers, along with other staffers, such as cafeteria workers and school police officers.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has resisted recommendations to delay the mandate.

The vaccine mandate was going to be a difficult situation to say the least and has set up a major confrontation (see video above) between school teachers and workers,  and Mayor de Blasio and the NYC Department of Education.

Tony

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