Hundreds of thousands of Americans have been discriminated against for the religious or philosophical decision not to get the COVID-19 vaccines. We’ve been fired from our jobs; stripped of our professional licenses; prohibited from entering the YMCA; kicked out of restaurants, theater performances, and in-person university classes; barred from family gatherings.
But now one employee, Pamela Petroff, is fighting back. Petroff is suing Disney, the company she is currently working for. In the lawsuit, which was filed yesterday in California, Petroff alleges that she has been facing severe discrimination and harassment tied to her decision not to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The lawsuit details an intolerable workplace environment rife with anti-religious and political bias.
Petroff is Christian. She declined to get vaccinated because doing so goes against her religious beliefs. After she declined, according to the lawsuit, her supervisors have been threatening to fire her and harassing her non-stop. At one point they ordered her to remove an American flag from a Memorial Day flyer because the flag “could offend people.” She was also allegedly denied work opportunities, including the option to work remotely, that were available to her vaccinated colleagues.
The Beast at Disney: Bullying Unvaccinated Employees
As parents we try hard to teach our children to be tolerant and open-minded. As a society, America actively works to stop bullying. Politicians on both sides of the aisle discourage bullying and President Biden has said that his administration has a zero-tolerance policy for bullying. But bullying has been the name of the game at Disney Television Studios in Burbank, California, according to this lawsuit.
Kara Vallow, Petroff’s supervisor, repeatedly expressed her dislike and disapproval of Republicans, Christians, and anyone who choose not to (or presumably wasn’t able to for medical reasons) be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the suit.
Vallow made her personal bias public on social media. “OH MY FUCKING GOD, GET THE FUCKING VACCINE ALREADY, YOU FUCKING FUCKS…,” she wrote in one post, according to the lawsuit. “As for the unvaccinated: Unfriend them, don’t talk to them, don’t hire them. The woods is where they live now,” Vallow insisted.
The lawsuit describes Kara Vallow as an “anti-religion zealot.” According to the suit, Vallow:
criticized religion endlessly in her social media posts and she admonished her followers about their political views: “If you haven’t done it yet, one more time, there is no longer a place for any republican or repub sympathizers in a halfway competent or decent society. Republicans are fascist filth who will take away your rights at will. They’re coming after your lesbian sister. They’re coming after your disabled daughter. They coming after your immigrant friends. They’re coming after your gay marriage and your mixed race marriage. Do not break bread with these motherfuckers. No Thanksgiving invites, no visits with the grandkids. Cut them out of your lives, don’t be complicit, don’t ever romanticize familial ties.”
Another social media post, posted by a different user, that Vallow liked, read: “Time’s up, fuckers. We’re literally waiting on you to end this pandemic. Please kindly pull your head out of your ass, quit making this about you, and pull your god damn weight, amen. #mcsweeneys #GETVACCINATED #VACCINESSAVELIVES #covidvaccine.”
(So, um, if you’re unvaccinated and wondering what the “other side” thinks of you, now you know… And, um, if you were curious about how people in California who consider themselves open-minded, tolerant, and kind-hearted actually feel about other people, I recommend you read this lawsuit. Or not…)
Unprecedented Discrimination from Disney
“Disney has never required that individuals get a shot to work for it,” Scott Street, an attorney for Pamela Petroff, stated in a press release about yesterday’s legal action. “It never even required such medical information before the COVID pandemic, recognizing that California law prohibits employers from conditioning employment on medical conformity.”
Leslie Manookian, the president of Health Freedom Defense Fund and the producer of a documentary film about vaccine safety, The Greater Good, says her organization is in full support of the suit.
“Although the CDC and other public health officials have changed their tune about COVID, companies like Disney are still enforcing their unprecedented mandatory vaccination policies, especially against people who have religious and medical reasons for declining the shots,” Manookian said in the press release. “Nobody should be forced to violate her conscience to keep her job.”
The case, Petroff vs Vallow, Disney Television Studios Inc. and The Walt Disney Company was electronically filed yesterday (August 24, 2022) in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County.
Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is an award-winning science journalist and book author. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and on the cover of Smithsonian magazine. A contributing writer at The Epoch Times, she also publishes articles and produces audio features for Jefferson Public Radio, and has written for More magazine; Mothering magazine; O: The Oprah Magazine; Military History Quarterly; The Oregonian; The Christian Science Monitor; and hundreds of other magazines, newspapers, and on-line sites. Support independent journalism by becoming a paid subscriber to Vibrant Life, which costs less than one cup of coffee a month.
Related Articles:
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New Study: Unvaccinated Wrongly Maligned (Epoch Times, behind a paywall)
Healthcare Workers Win $10.3 Million Settlement for Religious Discrimination Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates (Fox News)
Here We Go Again With the Anti-Parent Hysteria (my website)
Way to go Pamela! Go get them!!! It’s great that your supervisors words are documented forever here. They’ve not aged very well and she’s no doubt ashamed of herself at this point. Such a tricky situation. On the one hand, it would be great to forgive her and everyone else that ruined so much for so many. On the other, without consequences, you know they’d do it again in a second. I feel my community in Berkeley softening a bit but I’m having a hard time with forgiving others. No one is going to apologize so how do we move along? Maddening. So many people have left CA as their solution. The reports are good. Is that the only answer?!
Thank you for your work. Very promising. I'm adding to a link to your article in my blog. Thank you.