Sheryl Glean won her case against St. Luke’s South Hospital, which terminated her employment because she submitted a religious exemption request and did not get vaccinated against COVID-19:
“St. Luke’s argued that Glean’s request focuses on concern about bodily harm and not religious belief. The Kansas Department of Labor sided with Glean, saying that Glean’s termination was punitive action for failing to comply with vaccination request…..We do not read K.S.A. 2023 Supp. 44-663 to empower employers to scrutinize an employee’s request for a religious exemption as strictly as the district court did. The statute does not require the employee to articulate a basis for their sincerely held religious beliefs, nor does it require the employee to provide written evidence of those religious beliefs, as the district court held Glean was required to do. It only requires the employee to explain in a written statement that complying with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate would violate their sincerely held religious beliefs, which Glean did. K.S.A. 2023 Supp. 44-663(a). And, in fact, the statute specifies: “An employer shall grant an exemption requested in accordance with this section based on sincerely held religious beliefs without inquiring into the sincerity of the request.” K.S.A. 2023 Supp. 44-663(b).
Thank you to the Kansas Court of Appeals for honoring Glean’s Right To Refuse.
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She refused to get COVID vaccine. Kansas court says hospital was wrong to fire her
Jack HarvelSt. Luke’s Health Systems improperly fired an employee when it didn’t accept a religious exemption request to the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Court of Appeals of the State of Kansas.
The hospital denied a request from Sheryl Glean in November 2021, saying she expressed a concern for physical harm from the vaccine rather than a “sincerely held religious belief.” In her request, Glean states that her religious beliefs include that her body is “holy” and that she consulted with her pastor and family members regarding vaccination.
“I’ve talk (sic) to my Pastor from my church and other family members about my decision refusing to get the vaccine and I did my own research regarding Covid vaccine and they help me with my decisions,” Glean wrote in an online exemption request to St Lukes.
Glean worked at St. Luke’s South Hospital, which is in Overland Park.
St. Luke’s argued that Glean’s request focuses on concern about bodily harm and not religious belief. The Kansas Department of Labor sided with Glean, saying that Glean’s termination was punitive action for failing to comply with vaccination request.
The Johnson County District Court, however, ruled in St. Luke’s favor when it reviewed the complaint. On Friday, the Appeals Court of Kansas ruled that the district court improperly interpreted a 2021 law governing requirements and exemptions for employers’ COVID-19 policies.
Interpreting vaccine exemption law
The law says employers must accept an exemption request if it would endanger an employee’s life or the life of someone who lives with them, which would require confirmation by a health care professional, or if it violates “sincerely held religious beliefs of the employee, as evidence by an accompanying written statement signed by the employee.”
The appeals court said St. Luke’s improperly interpreted this law to mean it could “scrutinize an employee’s statement to determine whether the employee’s invocation of the religious exemption was religiously based.”
“The statute does not require the employee to articulate a basis for their sincerely held religious beliefs, nor does it require the employee to provide written evidence of those religious beliefs, as the district court held Glean was required to do. It only requires the employee to explain in a written statement that complying with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate would violate their sincerely held religious beliefs, which Glean did,” the appeals court wrote in its decision.
Further, the court found a scriptural basis for Glean’s belief of the holiness of the body in the Bible, which calls bodies “temples of the holy spirit” in Corinthians 6:19.
The law allows the state to take civil action against St. Lukes, charging it up to $50,000 per violation if it’s found St. Luke’s knowingly violated the bill’s provisions, that it displayed bad faith in interpreting the law, whether it’s corrected the violation, if it has been fined before and “any other mitigating or aggravating factor.”
The law would stop any civil action if an employer reinstates an employee with back pay from the date of the complaint to the employee’s reinstatement.
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Saint Luke’s Health Systems improperly fired an employee when it rejected her request for a religious exemption from the hospital system’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the Court of Appeal of the State of Kansas ruled.
On Sept. 14, 2021, Sheryl Glean submitted an online exemption request from the hospital’s vaccine mandate, according to the court opinion issued on Jan. 17. Glean worked at Saint Luke’s South Hospital in Overland Park. Saint Luke’s runs 10 hospitals in Kansas and Missouri.
In her request, Glean said her religious beliefs include that her body is “holy.” She also said she talked with her church pastor about her decision to refuse the vaccine.
The hospital denied the request, the court said, “because it interpreted the language Glean used as expressing a concern about physical harm from the vaccine rather than a sincerely held religious belief against getting the vaccine.”
Saint Luke’s was wrong to interpret Glean’s request that way, the court said:
“Not only did she explain that her refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine is based on her religious views … [she] further evidenced the religiosity of her beliefs when she stated that she had discussed her concerns about getting the vaccine with the pastor from her church.”
The court pointed out that the Kansas law on COVID-19 vaccination requirements specifies that an employer “shall grant an exemption requested in accordance with this section based on sincerely held religious beliefs without inquiring into the sincerity of the request.”
In other words, the hospital was wrong for even questioning the sincerity of Glean’s religious beliefs regarding her request.
