N.Y.C. places dozens of school employees on unpaid leave, saying they used fake vaccine cards.

The New York Metropolis Division of Training this week notified dozens of faculty staff that they’d be positioned on unpaid go away efficient Monday, after it mentioned an inside investigation revealed that they had supplied false proof of coronavirus vaccination.

Regulation enforcement and the Particular Commissioner of Investigation for the New York Metropolis College District are investigating the matter.

“Fraudulent vaccination playing cards aren’t solely unlawful, additionally they undermine the most effective line of safety our faculties have towards Covid-19: common grownup vaccination,” mentioned Nathaniel Styer, a spokesman for the Training Division. “We instantly moved to place these staff — fewer than 100 — on go away with out pay.”

The division wouldn’t reveal what proof it had relied on to find out that the playing cards have been pretend. “If they’ve proof that they’re vaccinated, they’ll present it,” Mr. Styer mentioned.

A number of of the workers advised town that that they had adopted the proper procedures and had obtained the notices in error, however they’ve but to obtain a response, based on the United Federation of Academics, the lecturers’ union.

“It’s wholly improper for the DOE to unilaterally take away UFT members from the payroll based mostly on mere conjecture that vaccination documentation is fraudulent,” Beth A. Norton, a lawyer for the union, wrote in a letter to the division.

The lecturers’ union demanded that the Training Division rescind the notices and be sure that the workers who obtained them stay on the payroll. The division declined to reply to the letter.

New coronavirus instances in New York Metropolis have elevated 55 % previously two weeks, largely fueled by the extremely contagious Omicron subvariant referred to as BA.2, based on The New York Occasions’s tracker. Hospitalizations have risen 10 % over the identical time interval.

Mayor Eric Adams in March rolled again a lot of pandemic restrictions, together with a faculty masks mandate for college students and educators that had been in place because the fall of 2020. Masks are nonetheless required at preschools and day care facilities for kids underneath 5, who aren’t but eligible for vaccination.

Vaccine mandates are one software officers have used to curb the virus’s unfold within the metropolis. Former Mayor Invoice de Blasio in August introduced a vaccine mandate for all educators, in an effort to reassure households and staff that faculties could be protected once they reopened.

It was the primary full vaccination mandate for metropolis staff, and utilized to almost 150,000 staff. Those that weren’t vaccinated by Sept. 27 have been barred from coming into faculties and positioned on unpaid go away, with medical insurance, for a 12 months.

The mandate compelled 1000’s of full-time faculty staff to get vaccinated, bringing the share who had obtained not less than one dose of a vaccine as much as 95 %. About 8,000 staff refused on the time and have been positioned on unpaid go away.

All the metropolis’s energetic schooling staff are actually absolutely vaccinated, Mr. Styer mentioned.

A small group of lecturers has repeatedly and unsuccessfully fought to overturn the mandate. In February, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom rejected a request to dam it.

Various different metropolis staff have been suspended based mostly on what they supplied to town as proof of vaccination.

Dozens of town’s sanitation staff have been suspended with out pay in November as a part of an investigation into the usage of pretend vaccine playing cards. Two high-ranking cops in December have been additionally accused of submitting pretend vaccination playing cards and have been positioned on modified responsibility.