NYC teachers win jobs back with backpay after refusing COVID-19 vaccine

New York City educators fired for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine won their jobs back with backpay after a judge ruled the city unlawfully rejected their religious exemptions.

"This Court sees no rational basis for not allowing unvaccinated classroom teachers in amongst an admitted population of primarily unvaccinated students," Porzio wrote in a 22-page opinion. "As such, the decision to summarily deny the classroom teachers amongst the Panel Petitioners based on an undue hardship, without any further evidence of individualized analysis, is arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable. As such, each classroom teacher amongst the Panel Petitioners is entitled to a religious exemption from the Vaccine Mandate."  Chris Pandolfo is a writer for Fox News Digital. Send tips to chris.pandolfo@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.

New York City's vaccine mandate for all Department of Education workers was in effect from Oct. 1, 2021, to Feb. 10, 2023. Thousands of teachers and other education workers lost their jobs under the policy for refusing to comply with the mandate.