Maricopa Community College District Nursing Students File Lawsuit Challenging COVID-19 Vaccine [View all]

Maricopa Community College District Nursing Students File Lawsuit Challenging COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate


Two Maricopa Community College District nursing students are suing in federal court to prevent the District from enforcing, threatening to enforce, or attempting to enforce the District’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate for its nursing and allied health students.

The students, Emily Thoms and Kamaleilani Moreno, through their attorney Colleen Auer, allege that the District is failing to make accommodations for these students’ deeply held religious beliefs.

United States District Judge Steven Paul Logan was quick to set a hearing for November 1.

Auer is asking the Court to require the District to adopt a “suitable accommodation” that will allow her clients to “complete their academic programs on time and as scheduled and contracted-for.”

“Two young and upcoming college students with a brilliant future in healthcare ahead of them have been told by the Maricopa County Community College District that they will either sacrifice their religious convictions against inoculation with the COVID-19 vaccines or their academic programs,” Auer told the Arizona Daily Independent. “The reason for this Hobson’s Choice turns on the fact that these young students happen to have been assigned to a 3-day clinical rotation with one of the District’s Clinical Partners who has a universal COVID-19 vaccination requirement for students doing rotations in its facilities. Many other Clinical Partners of the District allow students to decline or obtain an exemption to COVID-19 vaccination provided they comply with established COVID-19 safety protocols for the facility, which these students are more than willing to do.”

Read more: https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2021/10/22/maricopa-community-college-district-nursing-students-file-lawsuit-challenging-covid-19-vaccine-mandate/

Perhaps these students should consider a career outside the healthcare industry if they are unwilling to take vaccinations?