UL won't mandate COVID-19 vaccine for nursing students after lawsuit

A University of Louisiana at Lafayette nursing student is dismissing her lawsuit over the schools COVID-19 vaccine requirement for clinical nursing classes after the school backed down on the mandate.

UL requires several semesters of clinical study for nursing students, some of whom do their clinical rounds at Ochsner Lafayette General, which is implementing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees.

But state law provides what attorney Shawn Trahan called a "philosophical exemption" from vaccine mandates for students, which Ochsner does not offer for employees, instead allowing only medical and religious exemptions.

The distinction prompted Trahan's client, UL nursing student Mia Bourg, to sue in mid-September so she could participate in the clinical coursework required for her degree without a COVID-19 vaccine. On Friday, she and the university reached a deal to allow her to avoid the vaccine through regular testing and dismiss her suit.

"Our lawsuit was based on Ochsner's policies for exemptions for nursing students, and it was different than the Revised Statutes of Louisiana," Trahan said Monday.

"But they redid their policy, and it was in line with the revised statues, so all of my client's grievances were met and there was no reason to go further."

Representatives for UL had no comment Monday.

UL's deal with Bourg follows a federal case earlier this year in Louisiana that upheld the "philosophical exemption" from vaccines for students at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Monroe, which Trahan said gave his case clear precedent for success.

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"We have a specific educational state statute. And there was a case up in Monroe in federal court that was very similar, so we knew we had some precedence there," he said.

The deal also comes after a pair of judges in Lafayette upheld COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employees at Ochsner Lafayette General and Our Lady of Lourdes medical centers in the past two weeks.

More:Lawsuit over COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees dismissed by judge

The decision against employees of Ochsner Lafayette General, which allows them to be fired if they do not get vaccinated before the hospital's late-October deadline, will be appealed, according to the employees' attorney Jimmy Faircloth.

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