Kitsap court clerk sues county for firing her after refusing COVID vaccine

Alongtime Kitsap County District Court clerk fired in 2021 because she refused the COVID-19 vaccine filed a lawsuit last month against the county, alleging she had been wrongfully terminated after the court denied her request for reasonable accommodations.

Tammy Duryea, a fiscal tech II, had been working for the court since July 1994. In August 2021 county courts required all employees to be vaccinated, the only county department requiring employees to be vaccinated.

Duryea had applied for a religious exemption for her Christian faith, as well as a medical exemption for a severe reaction she had to a flu vaccine in 1995. A doctor wrote her a note – a different doctor than she had in 1995 – saying he advised against her receiving a vaccine because of the reaction.

Duryea contends she could have been accommodated by the court by having her work remotely or otherwise isolated from coworkers and the public. In the 27 years she worked for the court, she said she received positive performance reviews. Further, Duryea said she felt betrayed by her former employer three years before she would have become eligible for full retirement benefits.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/kitsap-court-clerk-sues-county-for-firing-her-after-refusing-covid-vaccine/ar-AA16b9JR