SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio ISD says it will "pause efforts" on an employee vaccination mandate after the Texas Supreme Court stayed the policy last week.
Under the mandate, all employees of San Antonio Independent School District were supposed to get vaccinated against the virus by Friday — directly challenging Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Then-Superintendent Pedro Martinez enacted the rule in August, drawing lawsuits from Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Thursday, the district released a statement saying they are proud of the COVID-19 policies and will continue to educate the community and coordinate vaccine clinics.
You can see the full statement below:
Today, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily stayed our employee vaccination mandate while the Fourth Court of Appeals continues reviewing our decisive victory in state district court against the Governor’s overreaching ban on vaccine mandates. The Supreme Court’s stay means that we must temporarily pause our efforts.
We are extremely proud of our efforts in providing abundant access to this life-saving protocol to all of our employees and the broader SAISD community. Based on the science, we continue to feel strongly that these vaccines help us keep our staff and students as healthy as possible and in the classroom, where learning happens best, and in giving our families stability.
We will continue to work with healthcare providers to coordinate vaccine clinics for those employees, students and family members who want them. This is especially important as we anticipate the availability of the Pfizer vaccine for 5-11 year old children in the next month. We remain committed to believing it’s the right thing to do.