SAN DIEGO (LifeSiteNews) – After a long, arduous and often traumatic experience of ongoing terminations for refusing the dangerous and ineffective abortion-tainted COVID jabs, Christian employees of a San Diego college system overcame insurmountable odds to defeat a seemingly intransigent administration over mandated injections.
“I knew it was nothing but the grace of God,” celebrated Dr. Tracey Kiser, a pregnant black mathematics professor who was slated to be terminated in March for refusing the jabs. “We stood on our faith this whole time, and that’s why we kept fighting.”
As LifeSiteNews reported in February, the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD) was the only college system in the state of California to adopt a policy of firing employees for declining to receive the COVID-19 gene-based injections due to their religious convictions.
As an apparent result of pressure from the local American Federation of Teachers “union boss” Jim Mahler, the district had targeted employees who received religious exemptions by declining to award them with similar accommodations they had liberally granted to those with medical exemptions, precluding their ability to remain employed.
Further, while public pressure continued to mount against these termination policies, the district’s five-member Board of Trustees (BOT) moved to unanimously fire three such employees for refusing the shots on January 19. Notices were later sent to others indicating they were scheduled for terminations as well during board meetings in March.
Despite a letter-writing campaign to the chancellor and BOT, of which LifeSite readers contributed thousands of emails, along with generous local television coverage from KUSI News, the posture of the authorities remained immovable.
In email correspondence replying to those protesting the injustice of such terminations, SDCCD chancellor Carlos Cortez reinforced his stance that he and the BOT had “no intention of changing our policy” regarding such terminations.
In the meantime, a local organization called ReOpen San Diego joined the fray in defense of the college workers with their co-founder Amy Reichert, calling this policy “an attack on Christians” and demanding that SDCCD “stand down [and] reverse course,” or “a legal freight train is coming your way. You will not do this to your employees. Not on our watch.”
Reichert, whose organization initiated litigation that pressured the City of San Diego to end its COVID-19 emergency declaration and employee “vaccine” mandate, scheduled a press conference to precede the Thursday, March 2 board meeting that had been expected to vote on a new slate of terminations.
Carlos de la Lama, one of the professors who was expected to be terminated in March, told LifeSiteNews in an email correspondence that the press conference was successful drawing five television stations, several lawyers who offered to help them in their legal battles against the district, and the California Chapter of the Children’s Health Defense.
During the public comment period of the board meeting, approximately 20 individuals submitted requests to speak with virtually all of them, expressing severe displeasure against the irrationality of the mandates often with roaring applause and participation from those in attendance.
According to de la Lama, these presentations “were so incredibly intense and vociferous that SDCCD took down the video link approximately five hours after it was posted in their YouTube channel.”
Yet, he did provide clips of four of the presentations, including one from a woman named Kara who in listing a litany of aspects in which the government COVID narrative was proven false (mask and vaccine mandates, PCR tests, school closures, etc.) had the incensed supporters in the gallery joining in after each item with a rousing chant of “Wrong!”
Another faculty member who, according to de la Lama, took the Novavax under duress from the administration said he was injured by the shot as it triggered a skin disorder that effected his elbows, hands and reproductive organs (profanity warning).
A third charged the BOT with firing employees “because they refuse to join your insane cult,” and Reichert gave a testimony regarding her interactions with Cortez calling out what she perceived as several of his hypocrisies.
‘It is a miracle … The district has completely reversed course. They have stood down.’
As an apparent result of the pressure and the realization that it was probably only going to intensify, at 10 a.m. the next morning, SDCCD announced it was reversing its decision to terminate employees over their refusal to subject themselves to COVID gene-based injections and the college would even begin a reinstatement process for those who had been terminated in January.
“It is a miracle,” Reichert stated in an interview on KUSI News. “This is big news. The district has completely reversed course. They have stood down. They are not going to harm their employees’ civil rights. They are going to even reinstate the ones that were fired.”
We won!
We saved over 40 professors at SD Community College District @SDCCD from getting fired over vaccine mandates & the 3 fired in January will be reinstated. The district is standing down & has reversed course! @reopensandiego pic.twitter.com/thw6TC4ZIn— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) March 4, 2023
“When I found out, I dropped my phone and couldn’t believe it. I thought I was dreaming,” Joanna Aud wrote in an email correspondence with LifeSiteNews. Aud had not only been one of the three employees terminated in January, but with a master’s degree in public health, including an emphasis in epidemiology, she had also been a highly articulate and persistent critic of the BOT’s COVID policies at their meetings.
“This was an absolute 180 [degree change],” wrote de la Lama, as just two days before three employees had received notifications of termination to be imposed later in March.
‘God was looking after us and was about to work His miracles’
Also a member of the Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima, de la Lama emphasized the work of the Holy Spirit throughout this process as an answer to the prayers of these employees.
Commenting on how KUSI television reporter Lindsey Fukano arrived to cover the January 19 firings while wearing an elegant cross around her neck, de la Lama said, “It was right then and there that I felt an overpowering feeling that God was looking after us and was about to work His miracles.”
According to Rich Halliday, another professor slated for termination, when Fukano and her cameraman arrived to cover their story, “that in itself was a miracle.” Cortez “could not take his eyes off” of these media representatives and it “shook them to their core.”
“God gets all the glory,” Halliday said. “The Bible says that ‘with God all things are possible.’ We were fighting [in] a David versus Goliath situation and David has won.”
“I believe truly it was by the grace of God that the changes have been made,” Kiser said. “Although I would like to see the mandates removed completely, I do believe this is a step in the right direction.”
In an April 13 Telegram correspondence, de la Lama told LifeSite that other community college districts in southern California are beginning to drop vaccine mandates altogether, including Grossmont Community College District, which just voted unanimously on Tuesday to do so, with South Orange County Community College District expected to soon do the same.
“So once again, that leaves SDCCD as the outlier” regarding these policies, he said. “We keep fighting that mandate, and we will continue to do that at our next board meeting.”
In Fukano’s broadcast summary of this result, she noted how all of the employees she interviewed were afraid the policy would be the end of their respective careers at SDCCD, “but all of them, remaining very strong in their faith, prayed for this very outcome.”
Celebrating these educators with 200 people at the All We Ever Do is Win Win Win ReOpen San Diego event last night. #nomandates #wewon pic.twitter.com/TqnqzNWoki
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) March 16, 2023
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