Jury Awards $4 Million to St. Louis School Employees Denied Religious Exemptions From COVID Vaccine

U.S.

7 hours ago

Originally posted by: Children's Health Defense

A federal jury in St. Louis awarded over $4 million to 13 current and former employees of St. Louis Public Schools who were denied religious exemptions from the district’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate in 2021, St. Louis Today reported.

The 13 employees were among 43 plaintiffs who sued the district in June 2022 for allegedly violating their First Amendment rights, their due process and equal protection rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Missouri Human Rights Act.

In late June, jurors voted in favor of the plaintiffs on all counts, awarding them $1,018,175 in actual damages and $2,990,000 in punitive damages.

“I’m glad we got our day in court,” said Wanda Brandon, a teacher who was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.

She said:

“The main thing was to show the district that what they did was wrong, to just totally ignore the religious exemption request. We were treated as if religious beliefs don’t hold any type of weight.

“I’m happy we were victorious in court, and maybe the district or any other employers will learn that you can’t just force people to participate in something that they don’t believe in.”

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Kevin Kasper, said the lawsuit “wasn’t so much about the science of the vaccines — it was more about religious freedoms and rights under the law.”

“It’s a constitutional case that I think strengthens citizens’ rights to exercise their constitutional rights in this country,” Kasper said.

‘It was either get the vaccine or goodbye’

In August 2021, St. Louis Public Schools announced the district’s vaccine mandate, which took effect on Oct. 15, 2021.

According to the policy, medical exemption requests would be considered “on a case-by-case basis,” and the schools would offer “reasonable accommodations, absent undue hardship, to employees with sincerely held religious beliefs, observances, or practices that conflict with getting vaccinated.”

Fox 2 St. Louis reported in August 2021 that the school’s employees were required to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, as it was the only fully licensed vaccine available. By October 2021, approximately 96% of the district’s employees had complied with the mandate.

However, 47 unvaccinated employees — including 44 teachers, two custodians and a secretary — were placed on unpaid administrative leave. One principal resigned in opposition to the policy.

According to St. Louis Today, Charles Burton, the district’s former human resources director, said in a 2021 deposition that the school denied all religious exemptions for staff, as “the rights of the children, particularly as it relates to our obligation in charge as an institution, outweigh that of the employees.”

Brandon said the district treated medical exemption requests differently from religious exemption requests.

She said:

“They accepted medical, but they discriminated against us, and they chose to deny every single religious exemption that was submitted. We were the only school district in Missouri that forced a mandate upon their employees. All the other school districts, if you weren’t vaccinated, you were allowed to test weekly.”

Unvaccinated employees were allowed the option to submit weekly tests only if their medical or religious exemption requests were granted, St. Louis Today reported.

But since St. Louis Public Schools denied all religious exemptions, “It was either get the vaccine or goodbye,” Brandon said.

District will likely appeal the ruling

In 2022, most of the plaintiffs, including Brandon, were allowed to return to their jobs. Forty-three of the 47 employees who had been placed on leave joined the lawsuit.

In June 2023, a federal court ruled in favor of the employees, opening the door for them to pursue settlements with the district.

In his 2023 ruling, U.S. Chief District Judge Stephen R. Clark wrote:

“Restrictions impermissibly infringing on constitutional rights, like the right to freely exercise one’s religion, spread across the country like a virus. …

“The District’s alleged Policy put Plaintiffs to a choice: compromise their convictions or lose their livelihoods.”

That ruling led to a series of settlements. Most of the 43 employees previously reached settlements ranging from $25,000 to $90,000 each, St. Louis Today reported.

The claims of 13 other employees resulted in a jury trial, which lasted 11 days. The jury deliberated for 14 hours before reaching a verdict.

According to Kasper, St. Louis Public Schools will likely appeal the decision.

“My anticipation is that they will appeal, for various reasons,” Kasper said. “I think the size of the verdict is a reason.”

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Ruling may help plaintiffs in future religious discrimination cases

If the appeals court upholds the ruling, it will help plaintiffs in future religious discrimination cases understand “what their rights are,” Kasper said.

Religious discrimination cases are “pretty rare … compared to other types of employment discrimination cases,” Kasper said.

The St. Louis jury’s verdict is the latest in a string of recent successes for plaintiffs in the U.S. who sued their employers for denying religious exemption requests.

In November 2024, a federal jury in Detroit awarded nearly $12.7 million to a Catholic woman who sued her former employer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, after she was fired in 2022 for refusing on religious grounds to get a COVID-19 shot.

In August 2024, a federal appeals court ruled in favor of a former Philadelphia assistant district attorney who said she was wrongfully denied a religious exemption and then fired when she didn’t get vaccinated.

In June 2024, a federal grand jury in Tennessee decided in favor of a former BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee scientist who refused the COVID-19 shot, citing her religious beliefs. The jury awarded her $687,240 in back pay and damages.

In at least 10 other rulings last year, federal appellate courts ruled in favor of plaintiffs who had been denied religious exemptions by their employers.

More lawsuits are in progress, including a lawsuit in Massachusetts by a former Tufts Medical Center emergency room doctor who refused the COVID-19 vaccine on religious grounds.

However, last month, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by several unvaccinated Maine healthcare workers who were fired after their religious exemption requests were denied.

Brandon said she hopes St. Louis Public Schools have “learned a lesson and will never try this practice again when it comes to people’s religious exemptions.”

Kasper said:

“If individuals, such as the plaintiffs in this case, don’t stand up for their rights, essentially they’ll get whittled away. We were glad that our clients stood up for their rights and that they went to trial. The jury, I think in this case, came down with the right decision.”

A survey conducted in January by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania found that public support in the U.S. for religious exemptions nearly doubled over the last six years.

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