The New York City Department of Education has axed another 850 teachers and aides for not complying with its vaccine mandate, bringing the total to nearly 2,000, the New York Post reported Saturday.
The Education Department ordered around 1,300 workers to show proof of vaccination by Sept. 5 or be "deemed to have voluntarily resigned." When 850 didn't comply, the department fired them.
This latest round of firings brings the total to 1,950 teachers or aides axed since then-mayor Bill de Blasio (D.) instituted the vaccine mandate last year, the Post found. While Mayor Eric Adams (D.) has rolled back some of de Blasio's COVID restrictions, he has kept the school employee vaccine mandate.
The firings come as New York City's COVID cases and hospitalizations are down and as courts strike down similar city mandates for police officers.
Rachelle Garcia, an elementary school teacher in Brooklyn, received a pink slip after the Department of Education denied her religious exemption.
"I couldn't give a proper goodbye to my students," Garcia told the Post. "Other teachers told me they kept asking, 'When is Ms. Garcia coming back?' That made me cry so much."
New York City has fired more than 2,600 municipal workers in total for not getting the COVID shot.