“Imagine How it Feels to be One of Only Three Educators out of 21,000 in the State of Rhode Island to Lose Your Job Over This Vaccine”
RI Legislature Considers Bills to Reinstate Workers Fired For Refusing Vaccine, End Vaccine Mandates
When the Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee met earlier this month, there were so many bills on the agenda that the chairman wondered aloud whether they would get home before sunrise. Each came with its own complexities, he said, and tens of witnesses were slated to testify. It was going to be a long night.
And it was—all told, more than four hours. But well into the fourth, the committee paid fixed attention as their fellow Rhode Islanders who were fired for refusing the Covid vaccine came to the podium. One after another, some in tears, they testified in support of legislation that promises to undo the damage done by the Covid vaccine mandates. As they each told compelling stories about lost livelihoods and missed opportunities, the other items on the evening’s crowded agenda seemed to fall away.
If passed in its entirety, the new legislation would reinstate workers like Brittany DiOrio, one of three Barrington school teachers fired for refusing the vaccine on religious grounds.
We covered the teachers’ legal battles, which are still grinding along, here:
- Court: Barrington (RI) School Committee Liable For Attorney’s Fees Of Teachers Fired Over Covid Vax Mandate
- Vaccine Mandate That Led To Firing Of Three Barrington (RI) Teachers Lacked Necessary Public Notice, Court Rules
- “Just Devastating” – Three Teachers Who Sought Religious Exemption From Covid Vaccine Fired In Barrington (RI)
DiOrio was one of more than a dozen witnesses to testify in support of three separate Covid bills: H5565, H5884, and H5916. All three bills redress the individual and societal harms inflicted by the deeply divisive vaccine mandates:
H5565:
- Prohibits discrimination in places of public accommodation against individuals based on their Covid vaccination status;
- Prohibits “any employer” from discriminating against an individual based on Covid vaccination status;
- Requires both public and private employers to reinstate employees who were terminated for refusing the Covid vaccine, “and/or reinstate any benefits, vacation pay, personal time, paid time off or other benefits that the employee lost as a result of the employer’s actions in discharging, terminating or penalizing the employee.”
H5884:
- Prohibits discrimination against individuals for refusing vaccination with respect to employment, public accommodation and credit;
- Provides that the Governor has no authority pursuant to any emergency declaration to order mandatory vaccination of an individual. Note the bill is not specific to the Covid vaccine. [01:12:20][*]
H5916:
- Prohibits the government from mandating the Covid vaccine or issuing a civil or criminal penalty for refusing the Covid vaccine;
- Prohibits discrimination by government entities based on Covid vaccine status;
- Provides victims of such discrimination recourse through the Attorney General’s office.[01:13:50]
Throughout the room—and across political lines—there was a shared sense of urgency for passing the remedial legislation, especially the provision in H5565 mandating reinstatement of unvaccinated workers. “The mandates that were put in place … have put us in a hole and we need to fix that,” urged Democrat Representative Thomas Noret, the sponsor of H5884. [01:13:20]
Republican Representative Chippendale, the sponsor of H5565, agreed:
“We lost professionals in every critical role in society, and many will never come back.” [01:00:15] This bill “is about righting a wrong … and working to recover from one of the greatest policy failures in a long time.” [59:02:00]
Chippendale called Brittany DiOrio, “an actual person this bill seeks to help,” as his featured impact witness.
As we wrote here, DiOrio was a veteran, highly rated public school special education teacher with multiple degrees in her field. Although the Barrington School Committee recently agreed (but has not yet voted) to end its vaccine requirement, in 2021 Barrington was the only school district in the state with a “no-jab-no-job” policy. She testified about what it was like to be fired on virtually no notice for refusing the Covid vaccine:
Like so many young families, my husband and I are relying on two salaries to pay our bills. I held the medical coverage for our family. At the time we had a nine-year-old and a six-year-old … We were both thrust into a panic of how and what we were going to do.
…
Imagine how it feels to be one of only three educators out of 21,000 in the state of Rhode Island to lose your job over this vaccine.
Imagine how it feels to work in the only school district in the state’s 39 districts to fire teachers over a vaccine.
…
Imagine being given only nine days’ notice that you are being terminated from the job you love and you’ve poured your heart and soul into.
Imagine how if feels to be told, in effect, that you should ‘just get over it’ and find another teaching job.
As the room filled with applause following DiOrio’s speech, the moment was not lost on a strange bedfellow. Progressive Democrat Representative Justine Caldwell, known for wreaking havoc with parental rights during Covid, came forward in a spirit of cooperation:
“I would like to see anyone who was let go from one of those places [that no longer require Covid vaccines] have an opportunity to come back,” she said. “I think that would be something that would be good that we could work towards, to make sure that those employees have the first shot to go back. … I think that seems reasonable and I would hope that maybe we could figure out a way to help that process along.” [01:06:18]
Caldwell’s goodwill went a long way with Rhode Islanders like Joshua Joseph, a self-described activist on the other side of the Covid controversy. Joseph told the committee [03:00:30] that passing the three bills will help heal the societal divide in Rhode Island. Gesturing in Caldwell’s direction, he urged its members to come together and support the new legislation: “It’s just a very generous thing for people who don’t agree with how we feel about this … At least consider the bills, as she did, and maybe people like that Barrington woman can go back to work.”
*Timestamps refer to the full hearing video here.
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Comments
Forcing a vaccine that had too little testing and had results resulting in death and bodily harm was bad enough. But we thought this country was founded on freedom from government intervention. How fascist is it to lose one’s job over a hostile and unreasonably demanding out of control government?
The groups of people who left England all those hundreds of years ago due to an unreasonable monarchy that was over-taxing their subjects, and demanding that they could only have the religion that the monarchy believed in was a great part of crossing a treacherous ocean in small boats to get away from such demonic cruelty. NOW, this same beautifully founded country is ten times worse than England ever thought of being.
How did it all turn out so badly?
What’s worse is the supreme courts refusal to do anything about it during the Chinese pandemic.
We found out how tolerant they will be with unlimited power.
I see very few have learned anything. You may as well go back to an abusive murdering spouse as go back to a job where they did this to you.
Do I not remember reading that Barrington had since “trone da bums out?”
Nice to hear some good news about what may truly be social justice, and justice under law.
Well, perhaps The Apparatus’ vaccine behavior has inoculated our body politic against things like the No Apps For You bill TikToking around The Swamp rt now.(*) Started in the Screaming-D controlled Senate. Apparently, the House doesn’t have a monopoly on initiating misnamed overreach.
This analogy with the ‘rona vaccine is stronger than the “vaccine” itself — the uncomfortable adaptation to the contrived provocation generates “protective resistance” none of long-lasting, robust, general, or safe. The ‘rona RNA jabs are more like a treatment with side effects.
I should look out for activists, now, I suppose. It’s a vaccine if it identifies as a vaccine. Who am I to dead-virus it?
(*) Where’s that mis- dis- mal-information board when you need them? That “TikTok” ban is more like Patriot Act II — E-Gizmo Boogaloo.
The shot, jab dictated ’round the world.
It probably feels alot like being career military and being told you must take experimental injections or lose your career.
Anyone remember the experimental anthrax jab pre-Gulf War? Unsurprisingly, only those faced with that dubious concoction tend to. Refusing it was a great way to get booted out of the military… right after the war that is.
The covid fiasco certainly affected more military members though. There are still people being booted for refusing that stick, and even if you somehow survived the boot you would never be promoted again or allowed to re-enlist, even at a time when our armed forces are massively failing to meet their recruitment goals.
Gee, I wonder if there is a connection there?
I remember mandatory swine flu vaccine. My corpsman marked my record as having had it. I didn’t.
Obama warned us about those corpse-men.
I do as I was one of the Servicemen forced to take them. My unit’s XO died from Guillain-Barré syndrome two years after our return from Saudi Arabia.
Can’t help but think taking the ‘experimental’ vaccines was a contributor. Breathing in fumes from burning excrement close to our tents didn’t help any, either.
I was forced to “retire early” at the end of 2021, from Lionbridge Technologies, a company for which I worked over six years, ALL SIX YEARS FROM MY HOME OFFICE, 1000 miles away from ANY LB office, for refusing the jab. I never went to an office, did not travel for LB business, or meet with any LB customers other than by Teams/Skype, phone, and email.
This whole thing was utter bullshit, and still is…
Just another example why governments create more problems than they solve. The bills specifically mention the covid vaccine, which is a truck sized loophole that makes non-covid vaccines not illegal to mandate.
The solution is simple: it shall be illegal for any person or business to demand another person disclose personal medical information. Federal laws (HIPPA) do just that. Medical insurers are not permitted to demand individual employee data — they must base their premiums on a statistical percentage basis.
So why single out covid vaccine status?
There’s a BIG difference in “having first opportunity to come back” and being FULLY REINSTATED WITH BACK BENEFITS AND PAY! So the one who had been a troublemaker before is being applauded for that?? That’s a typical DEMOcrat “non-apology apology”! Crap on that – make them WHOLE and take the money out of the pockets of those who made the ORIGINAL decisions!!
Tom Petty:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TlBTPITo1I
No matter what you read or hear the jab was for control and power. The evil people in power that promoted this terrible vaccine wanted conformity and they knew that if they could get away with this unConstitutional mandate they could also use it with other issues to force us to comply. Thank God some of our courts are still judged by Constitutionalists! The other more onerous choice is to move to states that allow the freedoms that our Constitution guarantees. Not in our lifetimes for many of us, but one day the states that offer the rights and liberties that our Constitution promises will be prosperous and the others will be in decline like NY, NJ, CA, MI, and others that usurp our freedom.
Beware of Caldwells bearing gifts. There’s a poison pill somewhere.
There’s a saying that 80% my friend is still my friend. Move the decimal point to the left two places.