NEA Teachers Union Sued By Barrington (RI) Teachers Fired For Refusing Covid Vax, Allege Union Complicit

JANE COLEMAN MAY 25, 2023 5:00 PM

The three Barrington, Rhode Island school teachers fired by their school district for refusing the Covid vaccine have sued their teachers union for failing to represent them in the two-year ordeal.

The lawsuit filed today is the “latest shoe to drop,” says Greg Piccirilli, the lawyer who respresents them because their teachers union wouldn’t.

They are probably better off without them anyway. Piccirrili recently won a massive settlement—more than they could have hoped for had they gone to trial—including full reinstatement and back pay.

We’ve covered the teachers’ travails from the very beginning:

• Total Vindication: Full Reinstatement and Back Pay For Three Barrington (RI) Teachers Fired For Refusing Covid Vax
• “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”
• 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)

Each of the three teachers—Brittany DiOrio, Stephanie Hines, and Kerri Thurber—had requested a religious exemption from taking the Barrington school district’s mandatory Covid vaccine at the beginning of the 2021-2022 school year. The district denied their requests, suspended them without pay, and ultimately fired them effective January 1st of 2022.

But when the teachers turned to their union to represent them, they were given an ultimatum instead: get vaxxed or get fired.

Pat Ford of Coalition Radio asked the union to comment on the filing today but was turned down — and turned out:

Today’s complaint, filed in Rhode Island Suprerior Court, alleges that the teachers union conspired with the school committee to force them into compliance or leave.

The complaint also alleges religious discrimination.

Piccirilli explains:

The union’s action made the committee feel empowered to go forward with termination because the district would not represent these teachers. In fact, at the pre-termination hearing on October 28, 2021, the union lawyer specifically said that the union felt that the committee had the power to adopt a vaccine mandate unilaterally without negotiating, and without any religious exemption.The union’s actions were a complete abdication of their legal obligation to vigorously defend these teachers from termination, and also was evidence of discrimination because they refused to consider these teachers’ religious objection to the vaccine.

Today’s complaint holds the teachers union to account. Piccirilli says they hope to expose the union’s complicity in having its own members fired over an unlawful mandate.

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