EMPORIA, Kan. (KSNT) – A Flint Hills Techincal Higher education nursing student who is suing the faculty after being mandated to acquire a COVID-19 vaccine was in courtroom Tuesday saying her spiritual beliefs had been becoming violated.
Judge W. Lee Fowler requested the specialized school to give Ellis “incompletes” for her scientific trials, alternatively of failing grades. Ellis could not do her scientific trials till she is vaccinated.
”I’m glad to see how it turned out. I experience like all the really hard work was well worth it and hopefully, we reach a compromise,“ Ellis instructed KSNT.
Ellis reported she hopes a settlement could be arrived at that would enable her to graduate nursing faculty.
“We never have exemptions at the tech college or university,” reported Kim McNeese, director of nursing at Flint Hills Technical School (FHTC).
McNeese was testifying in the lawsuit introduced from Flint Hills Technical School by nursing scholar, Molly Ellis, who desires an exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate below the Kansas Preservation of Religious Flexibility Act.
In accordance to court documents, Molly Ellis submitted the lawsuit underneath the Kansas Preservation of Religious Flexibility Act on Feb. 2. The temporary states that Ellis is continuing to comply with her spiritual convictions and refuses to be injected with vaccines made from “the use of aborted babies’ fetal tissue.”
In accordance to the University of Nebraska Healthcare Heart, the COVID-19 vaccine does not have aborted fetal cells.
McNeese testified FHTC provides each individual nursing college student a handbook that is reviewed “extensively.”
Ellis’s Johnson County law firm, Linus Baker, argued that when the nursing student signed the handbook the COVID-19 vaccine was not a necessity. Ellis commenced the nursing software in August of 2021 and prepared to graduate in May possibly of 2022 soon after completing her scientific trials. On the other hand, on Jan. 1, 2022, Flint Hills modified its College student Handbook to demand COVID-19 vaccinations for nursing pupils undertaking clinical trials.
“Without compliance, we really do not have a scientific spouse,” McNeese told the court docket.
Presbyterian Manor and Newman Regional Overall health have contracted with FHTC for clinical education. McNeese explained to the courtroom that a spiritual exemption would be up to Newman Clinic or Presbyterian Manor, not FHTC.
FHTC has four clinical partners, all of which need a COVID-19 vaccination to do clinicals.
Ellis has asked if she could do simulation instead of clinicals, McNeese explained to the court docket some part of the clinical have to be completed with a person of the scientific companions.
When requested by FHTC attorneys if lodging could be made to come across yet another scientific spouse, McNeese testified it could “take weeks to months” to come across yet another facility that was not governed by vaccination demands.
Judge W. Lee Fowler, who is managing the circumstance, stated that time was of the essence with this matter. He further more remarked that he does not want Ellis to have to modify her spiritual beliefs and wishes to check out to obtain lodging.
