I was speechless. What an offensive thing to say.”

Greg Piccirilli, about comments made by the schools' attorney Sara Rapport

A post-termination hearing set for Thursday night, Feb. 10, for the three fired Barrington school teachers may be postponed yet again. 

Greg Piccirilli, the attorney for the teachers, said the lawyer for the school committee, Sara Rapport, told him there are some “members” who are in contact with vulnerable individuals and are concerned about holding an in-person hearing with a large number of unvaccinated people in attendance who won’t wear their masks properly. 

“I was speechless,” Mr. Piccirilli said, referring to Ms. Rapport’s comments. “What an offensive thing to say. It’s staggering to me… the ‘great unwashed.’”

Mr. Piccirilli said he asked Ms. Rapport why she and the school officials were assuming that people who would be attending the hearing would be unvaccinated? And, he continued, why would that matter? 

“What difference is there if you’re required to wear a mask anyway,” he said. 

Mr. Piccirilli, who is representing Barrington teachers Brittany DiOrio, Stephanie Hines, and Kerri Thurber, said there were police at the last hearing in October. He said the police officers made sure people were wearing their masks properly. 

He went on to say that he found it offensive to ask his clients to give up their rights to a public hearing because an individual or individuals on the school committee were not comfortable. 

Coincidentally, the people involved in the post-termination hearing were due in court this week.

“We’re all going to go into court tomorrow. I don’t know who’s vaccinated there. We’re all wearing masks. What difference does it make,” he said. “You go out to eat, you wear a mask.

“You have Covid-positive healthcare workers allowed to work with patients and yet you won’t allow a public hearing in-person?”

Mr. Piccirilli believes the school committee is pushing for a remote hearing because they don’t want to have to deal with the public.

“I think they were definitely uncomfortable with the pre-hearing we had,” he said. “Whether they are honestly irrationally afraid, I don’t know. It’s the whole basis of the vaccine mandate to begin with. ‘If we force people to be vaccinated then somehow I’ll never get it?’ It just doesn’t work like that, and we know that.

“The lack of logic and common sense makes you wonder whether there’s some other motivation.”

Mr. Piccirilli said there is a chance the hearing is postponed again, until after Feb. 14. 

“I can object, but who can I object to? They run the hearing,” he said.

“My clients are pretty adamant. They want it in public session and they want the public to come.”

Background

This marks the third time the appeal hearing for the teachers has been postponed. Previous hearings had been delayed for a variety of reasons, including a threat written on a bathroom wall at Barrington High School.

The appeal hearing is for three unvaccinated Barrington teachers — Brittany DiOrio, Kerri Thurber and Stephanie Hines — who were initially placed on unpaid leave and then fired on Jan. 1 because they did not follow the district’s vaccine mandate. 

The teachers requested religious exemptions from the district’s vaccine mandate, but the school committee followed the superintendent’s recommendation to deny the requests, citing an “undue burden” the teachers’ unvaccinated status would place on the school department.

The terminated teachers also filed a lawsuit against the school committee, alleging that the school committee did not properly notice the meeting during which the committee voted to approve the vaccine mandate for all school department employees.