A contentious legal battle has erupted over the COVID-19 vaccination policies of a private university, drawing significant attention to the rights of students versus institutional mandates. On March 14, 2022, Harlow Glenn and others filed a complaint in the Santa Clara County Superior Court against The President and Trustees of Santa Clara College, challenging the university's strict vaccine requirements.
The plaintiffs in this case include Harlow Glenn, a sophomore at the university, Lyle Kosinski, a master's student in mechanical engineering, and the Children's Health Defense - California Chapter (CHD-CA). They allege that Santa Clara University's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students violated numerous statutory, constitutional, and common law rights. The university's policy required all students attending classes or living on campus to be vaccinated by September 1, 2021. This mandate was later extended to include booster shots during the winter break of 2021. The plaintiffs claim that these mandates were imposed "largely in exchange for millions of dollars in federal funding."
Harlow Glenn sought a religious exemption from the vaccine requirement but was denied. She alleges that Deepra Arora, a senior director at the university, threatened her with loss of housing and other benefits unless she complied with the mandate. Under duress, Glenn took the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and subsequently suffered severe adverse effects including partial paralysis and severe anxiety. Despite submitting a doctor's note requesting a medical exemption from further doses, Glenn claims that Lewis Osofsky, a campus physician, interfered with her doctors' recommendations and denied her exemption requests.
Lyle Kosinski faced similar challenges; his requests for medical and religious exemptions were denied leading to his disenrollment from the university just before completing his degree program. Kosinski alleges that when he sought permission to complete his remaining courses at another institution that allowed religious exemptions, Santa Clara University not only denied his request but also revised its transfer credit policy to prevent unvaccinated students from transferring credits.
The plaintiffs are seeking declaratory relief and an injunction to prevent future enforcement of the vaccine mandate as well as damages for Glenn and Kosinski. They argue that their constitutional rights under both state and federal laws have been violated by what they describe as coercive policies implemented by a private institution acting as a state actor due to its receipt of federal funds.
Case ID: H050735