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:
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:
H5884:
H5916:
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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