The $493,000 expensive lesson for a school district that made the wrong choice and mandated people inject themselves with a COVID vaccine.
Three Rhode Island teachers, Stephanie Hines, Brittany DiOrio, and Kerri Thurber, were fired for not getting the mandated COVID vaccines. They sued and prevailed.
The Barrington School Committee has settled and given them their jobs back with back pay, some compensation, and legal fees. It cost the district nearly a half million dollars.
“The three teachers have the opportunity to return to teaching positions within the Barrington School District should they choose to do so, at the steps they would have been at had they worked continuously,” stated a May 11th press release, East Bay RI reports.
The Barrington School District will also extend payment to DiOrio, Thurber, and Hines — each will receive $33,333. In addition, the teachers will receive back pay. Hines will receive $65,000, Thurber will receive $128,000, and DiOrio will receive $150,000.
The district will also pay $50,000 to the teachers’ lawyer, Greg Piccirilli, for attorney fees.
“This is immensely gratifying,” Piccirilli said in an interview Thursday afternoon. “They (his clients) have been proven right. They’ve been vindicated. Their position was right, and the (School) Committee has paid a price for it.”
“They are officially reinstated,” Piccirilli said. “They’ve been made whole.
“It’s very gratifying getting some relief. It’s satisfying.”
“They all have tremendous faith,” Piccirilli said. “It all started with their faith. They found their strength in their faith.”
He said they were “three of the nicest people” he had ever met and was “proud” to represent them.
I hope the school district learned a lesson about not mandating what a person injects into oneself.
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