Newton school psychologist who was fired for refusing Covid shots sues, cites her religion, Matthew, aborted babies and experimental, dangerous substances

A school psychologist for Newton Public Schools today sued over her 2022 firing for refusing Covid-19 shots, saying she had a legitimate religious reason to avoid the shots: Her Greek Orthodox church is against the use of substances derived from aborted babies, which she claims Covid-19 vaccines are from.

Also, Matthew says the healthy don't need doctors and she's healthy, except for the time she came down with Covid-19, but that was God's will.

In her suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, Sydni O’Connell is seeking a court order to formally slap Newton Public Schools for its alleged violation of her First Amendment rights, and award her at least $3 million in compensatory and punitive damages.

She is represented by Lynnfield attorney Richard Chambers, who is one of the state's handful of go-to Covid-19 lawyers, although he has lost a number of cases, including one brought by a collection of Boston residents, workers and cops who sought $6 million each for the alleged harm done to them by the city's three-month-long requirement to show proof of vaccination to get into public indoor spaces, all of whom had their cases dismissed.

O'Connell worked for Newton Public Schools between August, 2017 and her firing on Jan. 26, 2022, when "her civil rights were violated and she was unlawfully and wrongfully terminated by the Defendant based on her asserting her sincerely held religious beliefs by requesting an religious exemption to taking the Covid-19 vaccine."

Plaintiff stated that the "Covid vaccine … is a contradiction to [her] Orthodox faith" and that her "Church expresses its categorical opposition to conducting experiments on human embryonic cells".

NPS unlawfully and wrongly denied Plaintiff's request for a religious exemption after summarily alleging that Plaintiff's "objection was a personal objection and not based upon a deeply held religious belief" despite Plaintiff's contention unequivocally and clearly detailing that NPS's Vaccine Policy conflicted with her deeply held religious beliefs.

Or as O'Connell put it in her formal request for a religious exemption:

In Matthew 9:12 we are told that Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick." I do not routinely receive the flu vaccine. I am a firm believer of therapeutics, as Matthew states in that passage, but do not believe in putting unnecessary medicines - particularly those whose effectiveness remains to be determined - into my body.

I believe God has a plan for me, as he does for all of his children. I believe this is why I was infected with the disease this past summer. I endured the worst of it and fortunately made a full recovery. This was my path. I believe part of God's plan for me was to experience the disease and to develop natural immunity. But let us not forget, God helps those who help themselves. I live a healthy, active lifestyle - I exercise each day, eat a nutrient-dense diet an ensure I get adequate sleep each night.

Not mentioned in the complaint: Photo of Archbishop Elpidophoros, head of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, receiving a Covid-19 shot.

But even aside from the religious angle, Newton schools illegally practiced medicine in the way it made employees get a shot with a wide range of potentially dangerous health effects, the complaint avers:

Notwithstanding the side effects, risks and lack of safety, Defendant demanded that all of its employees receive experimental medical treatments. By advising its employees to take medical treatments as a condition of employment, Defendant was practicing medicine and making medical decisions and judgments for its employees without a medical license, without adequate medical training and without informed knowledge regarding the side effects and risks and benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine medical treatments.

Defendant incentivized its employees to receive the vaccine and demanded that they all, including Plaintiff, receive the Covid vaccine as a new requirement of continued employment.

Defendant demanded that its employees receive experimental medical treatments without providing its employees with requisite information including Plaintiff to make her own decision whether the medical procedure prevents her from contracting or spreading the disease.

It's an argument that might not play well in Boston federal courts, where judges have recently held that employers had the right to listen to federal experts and require shots in the middle of a pandemic.