NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A pair of New York City Department of Education employees have sued the agency for suspending them after they refused to take in-school COVID-19 tests, according to a report.
Jeffrey Bueno, a school aide, and Joel Severino, a paraprofessional, filed a lawsuit against the DOE claiming the agency’s rule requiring in-school staff members to sign forms consenting to random on-site COVID-19 testing is illegal, the Daily News reported.
Public schools in New York City are required to test 20% of their in-school students and staff members each week to avoid outbreaks, the outlet noted.
“By conditioning petitioners’ continued employment, including their remuneration and benefits, on their consent to be tested by and through a program which tests only 20% of those working in their job category, [the DOE is] engaging in arbitrary and capricious conduct,” the lawsuit claims, according to the outlet.
Bueno and Severino — both of whom were temporarily suspended without pay or benefits after they refused to take in-school COVID-19 tests — believe the test the DOE uses “is not reliable and more physically intrusive than available, safe and efficacious alternatives,” the suit reportedly says.
Both staff members volunteered to submit COVID-19 test results “from outside doctors” to the DOE, the outlet reported.
The DOE didn’t immediately respond to the outlet’s request for comment on the suit.