Students Sue To Block University System Of Maryland Vaccine Mandate
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A lawsuit over the University System of Maryland's vaccine requirements was filed in federal court.
Students filing in and out of the University of Baltimore law center are masked and vaxed.
"It's a small sacrifice for a better quality of our education," said Meriam Mossad, UB law student.
A pair of Towson University students and a University of Maryland Law School employee are named as plaintiffs on the lawsuit -- suing the University System of Maryland. The suit asks the court to prevent the state's public universities from punishing non-vaccinated students and employees.
"I would anticipate that we're going to see lots of lawsuits," said Dr. Dan Salmon.
Dr. Dan Salmon is cautious about advocating for mandates but the Johns Hopkins' Director of The Institute For Vaccine Safety said mandates should follow good safety data and supply.
"It's well justified from a scientific standpoint. Mandates have a long history of being effective and strong support from a legal perspective," said Dr. Salmon.
"I consulted with my own doctor. I listened to some of the doctors like Dr. Fauci who know a lot more about this than I do," said John Cardozo, UB law student.
The policy affects about 170,000 students across the system's 15 institutions including tens of thousands of faculty and staff.
"We had that already. We just added another vaccine to the list. Even before covid, in order to enroll, you had to have certain vaccines," said Mariana Garcia, college student.
Towson's COVID-19 code of student conduct calls for disenrolling non-vaccinated students beginning last week. One of those students claims he's been placed on "university probation" is named as a plaintiff in that lawsuit.
"There is a need for that extra push. I think that by mandating if you take things away from people, they'll be more apt to comply," said Paul Robinson, UB law student.
The attorney for the plaintiffs was not available for comment today. A spokesperson for the University System of Maryland also had no comment.