Mary Kate Planeta had planned to work for the Coast Guard after she got her Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) degree from San Diego Community College District, but a mandate requiring her to be vaccinated against COVID-19 has set back her plans.
"They barred my client from any on-campus classes, which she needed in order to get her degree but now she's at least one year behind schedule, possibly more, and the school doesn't care,” said Planeta’s attorney Gary Kreep. “They didn't try to work with her. They just said tough.”
Planeta is one of seven students and teachers who have sued Grossmont Cuyamaca Community College, San Diego Community College District and South Orange Community College District in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District federal court challenging the adoption of a vaccine mandate requiring they be vaccinated as a condition of enrollment or employment.
“We're going to be seeking a temporary restraining order in the next week or so,” Kreep told the Southern California Record. “We will ask the court to reinstate all the community college members that have been put on unpaid leave because they refuse to get vaccinated. They've also barred students from coming on campus who therefore can't get their degrees. It's tyranny. It's the idea that you do it our way or the highway and if you don't like it, to heck with you.”
The plaintiffs allege that the colleges have conditionally received grants that require them to pursue coronavirus compliance.
“We found out while we were preparing this lawsuit that these three districts are getting tens of millions of dollars to force their employees to be vaccinated and if they don't do that, they may have to give the money back,” Kreep added.
For example, Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds 3 (HEERF) paid out of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020 requires that recipients use a portion of the funds received to implement evidence-based practices to monitor and suppress coronavirus in accordance with public health guidelines, according to the March 30 complaint.
“A lot of the school staff have been losing their jobs, their pensions, their benefits, and their livelihoods,” Kreep added. “A couple of our plaintiffs are women who are high-ranking members of the administration in these community college districts and they are being shoved aside after working 18 to 20 years.”