By Alison Kuznitz
masslive.com
A Massachusetts state trooper was fired this week for not complying with Gov. Charlie Baker’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which required more than 40,000 Executive Department employees to be fully immunized by mid-October.
The State Police Association of Massachusetts said he is the first member to be terminated — underscoring the Baker’s administration lengthy process of sifting through vaccine exemption waivers, for both medical and religious reasons, before levying unpaid suspensions.
The development comes a week after MassLive reported the state had fired at least 60 Department of Correction workers for noncompliance. That tally is expected to rise, MassLive was told.
The trooper, who worked three years for the state, is a Marine Corps veteran and third-generation law enforcement officer, SPAM said a Facebook post Friday. A volunteer at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital and the Special Olympics, the fired trooper “was never disciplined in any way shape or form” by the Massachusetts State Police prior to Baker’s vaccine mandate, SPAM said.
“Twas the night before Christmas and the terminations began...” SPAM wrote on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/290897174253829/posts/5012410245435808/?d=n
The trooper likely sought and was denied a religious exemption from the vaccine mandate. SPAM said he was a Eucharistic minister who taught religious education for five years.
“These are the members we are losing because they are not afforded the right to have reasonable accommodations,” SPAM said. “Unfortunately this is just the first of many. During a time of critically short staffing and in a world where we strive to have a well-rounded, educated and wholesome Trooper, this is a loss for all of us.”
SPAM vowed to keep pursuing legal options to protect fired or disciplined troopers.
The Baker administration has released scant personnel information about the vaccine mandate, including how many Executive Department employees sought waivers and were ultimately approved or denied. Vaccination rates and termination numbers by individual departments — including MassDOT, the Department of Public Health and the Department of Correction — have not been officially divulged either.
A Baker official last Friday told MassLive more information would be shared “very soon.” But on Thursday, MassLive was told no updated figures were available yet.
The vast majority of Executive Department employees complied with the mandate, which Baker has defended as an important mechanism to protect the public and limit the spread of COVID.
As cases and hospitalizations soar due to the highly contagious omicron variant, Baker this week resisted reinstating a statewide mask mandate. Yet top Democrats, including Senate President Karen Spilka, have urged Baker to take immediate action by mandating masks indoors and proof of vaccination for indoor venues.
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