The Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) nursing student who said police officers forced her from class because she refused the COVID-19 vaccine said she will oppose a school policy that defies her beliefs and her legal rights.
That student, Avery Garfield, spoke to The Tennessee Star on Friday.
“I feel like I have woken up having to make a choice. Do I choose to fight for my rights and keep a hold of my beliefs or do I give in for a career? Mentally, this has taken a lot of heart and a lot of soul, and it has taken a lot out of me,” Garfield said.
“All of that passion that I had with nursing has not necessarily been dampened all the way, but it’s given it a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth.”
In a column last month, the Williamson County-based Tennessee Stands cited MTSU policy, which said nursing students must take the COVID-19 vaccine, with no exceptions.
Garfield’s attorney, Russell Newman, has taken legal action on Garfield’s behalf. He said Friday that MTSU officials cannot mandate the COVID-19 vaccine.
“You cannot mandate an unapproved vaccine,” said Newman, who is based out of Brentwood.
“That is the position that we are taking. You cannot mandate it. Therefore an exemption is not needed or required.”
Newman said Thursday that two police officers were waiting for Garfield as she arrived at her nursing class Thursday morning. He said those officers escorted her out of the building. Newman also said MTSU officials will not allow her to attend her clinical, which is part of her nursing curriculum.
MTSU spokesman Jimmy Hart told The Star on Friday that Newman and Garfield did not tell the story accurately.
“After the conversation with the faculty member on the day in question, the student left the meeting acknowledging that she understood she could not attend class and left the building without incident,” Hart said via email.
“University police officers were on site at the request of faculty but did not at any time detain or touch the student. The officers left the building at the same time as the student, but it was not to escort or remove her from the building. She left freely and of her own accord.”
Garfield said Tuesday it’s important that she assert herself.
“If you are scared about standing up for yourself and you are looking to see if anyone else is doing it and you think ‘Oh my God, are they going to think that I am crazy. Am I throwing everything away?’ If you want to use this as your sign then go for it,” Garfield said.
“You can fight back against this. If we come together and we all push against these unlawful mandates and we stand up for the choices of what happens to our own bodies we can win this if we fight together. We the people.”
Newman said Tennessee Stands members support Garfield and are paying for Newman’s time and expenses.
Newman said he was already representing Garfield in a lawsuit against MTSU regarding the vaccine mandate. On Thursday he filed his seventh emergency motion in the case, which is a second application for a temporary restraining order in the Middle District of Tennessee in the federal court.
“The court denied the first application for a temporary restraining order stating that we could not prove irreparable harm so we corrected that, and we filed a second TRO which is an emergency motion with the federal court this afternoon,” Newman said Thursday.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Avery Garfield” by Avery Garfield.
She does have a right – not to attend nursing school. Exposing others to her dumb-unvaccinated ass is not a right. Easy.
It would be great if all the ignorant rednecks just got Covid and left the rest of us alone.
Wow! There are some super judgemental and narrow minded people here. As a nurse, I can confidently attest to the fact that MANY nurses, doctors, techs etc…have not been vaccinated. I can also confidently attests to the fact that not everyone can safely receive the vaccine. The most beautiful part for me about being a nurse is caring for people in their time of need. I choose to work in a hospital as that is my preference. Some nurses work for insurance companies and legal teams and never interact with patients face to face. A nurse is expexted to provide ethical care including treating individuals regardless of personal bias. For those of you who call this student a hypocrite, you are mistaken. She can very well put her concerns regarding the vaccine aside and provide care to the vaccinated. Hcase in point: have you ever had to save the life of a known sex offender?!?! Come on everyone, you can do better than this. Judge not lest ye be judged. P.S.- we have the same right to practice informed consent.
I am TOTALLY with anyone who pushes back on the “Mandates”. I had a 25th Wedding Anniversary Trip planned for 2 years, destination Key West, FL. My Dr. prescribed a round of Ivermectin as a prophylactic. My husband and I are 63 years old. Not vaccinated or planning on it. We are back home, healthy and flipping Joe Biden the bird. Go live your life!
Your DOCTOR “prescribed” ivermectin!?? Is your doctor a vet? Probably- even horse’s asses need care.
Wow. Tell me you don’t do your own research without telling me you don’t do your own research. Ivermectin is not just for animals.
Studies have proven that it has actually saved many countries that were riddled with Covid causing their infection rate to plummet. While we are over here literally barely keeping our heads above water because big pharma and everyone else want to profit off our suffering. They don’t care about helping us, they care about making money, otherwise they wouldn’t try to block the ivermectin research and would inform people of ALL the different ways to
Help curb Covid. But they don’t. The shot is not a vaccine people.
Are you that stupid? Ivermectin was developed for humans.
So you aren’t living your life if you get the vaccine? Give me a break. You’re an old lady that literally has had dozens of vaccines in her life. This is all about the childish “you can’t tell me what to do” stance that afflicts so many in this country. It’s a real shame that you’ll take unproven medicine for this virus instead of an actual vaccine designed to fight COVID. Every living president has been vaccinated, every governor (R and D), nearly every member of congress and soon to be every member of the military. But go ahead, Brenda, you go girl! You done did ur resurrrch.
If you truly believe that, you’re ignorant. None have taken the vaccine. You need to get off Twitter or Facebook, stop watching the mockingbird media and do your own research on the topic. So many countries have done research in the vaccines which the vaccinated are producing the variants. The mRNA has literally comprised your innate immune system. Verified by lead virologists all over the world. When Drs here speak out they are silenced, deplatformed to stop the information from getting to the masses. Have you really asked yourself why they would do this? There is so much information at there. Go on rumble and look for Stew Peters. He hosts Drs from all over the world that have done the research. Just a starting place to get information. Wake up.
Beautifully said…. Thank you. It’s all true. Everybody has the right to make his or her own choice about their own body and what goes in it. Well stated.
Do you people realize that even vaccinated people can transmit AND and get the Covid virus, or is your media feed generally not that informative? Also, many hospitals require unvaccinated workers to be tested on a regular basis while vaccinated workers are not. That means that you are face-to-face with a health care provider who has either been tested regularly (unvaccinated) or has not. If they force all workers to get the vaccine, no one will be tested regularly and it’s anyone’s guess as to who is contagious on any given day. Which do you prefer?
“University police officers were on site at the request of faculty but did not at any time detain or touch the student. The officers left the building at the same time as the student, but it was not to escort or remove her from the building. She left freely and of her own accord.”
The presence of the police officers was an important implicit force. They would have put hands on her had she refused to comply. They left when she did. Therefore they escorted her out.
So a person who wants to work in healthcare does not want to have a vaccine that would prevent her from being a danger to the very people she would be caring for?
This is almost like saying I demand the airline allow me to train to be pilot and employ me but I don’t want to fly because I am afraid of heights. Or a person training to become an ER doctor but having a personal objection to blood transfusions so won’t allow them.
Her beliefs are irrelevant. She can certainly choose not to be vaccinated. But she cannot then turn around and say I also want to be able to work in a setting meant to cure sick people yet already infect these already sick people with weakened immune systems. There would eventually be lawsuits because of this.
She seems feeble minded to me therefor making her completely ineffective to be working in the medical field in any capacity. A nurse that won’t do anything and everything to protect her patients is a coward and not to be trusted. She should be blackballed from any type of medical jobs. Who would possibly want someone that’s not willing to take a vaccine to keep her patients safe, taking care of a family member. I lost a cousin last week, his wife the week before, and a son of theirs is on a vent where they all were admitted together. Another friend contacted me tonight to tell me that her husband would probably die before morning. These are all at the same hospital.
Exactly
Not everyone in nursing are frontline workers. You cannot say unequivocally that she would be a threat to patients. Many many nurses do other jobs.
Nursing students interact with patients as part of their training. It is a requirement.
Nursing students who are taking part in clinical trading ( I e visiting hospitals to provide services to patients there as part of their nurses training) are legally required to obey all my safety mandates applicable to the participating clinical setting ( ie hospital) and those of their nursing school , which must comply with the hospital which in turn must comply with the CDC. Sorry, if she chooses not to get vaccinated she has chosen to forfeit her nursing career. 42 years in the field as a Registered Nurse and Public Health Nurse. ( And triple vaccinated.)
She is not a nurse. She is a nursing student.
You do a little of everything as a student.
That doesn’t make sense. Many years back there was a flu named the Hong Kong flu. It was fierce and intense. I was sick for two Christmas holiday time. We had a coworker in our department that was sick with this two years in a row. I caught it from her causing me to be sick two Christmas times. She never stayed home with it until the company nurse insisted she stay home for 10 days or until all symptoms ended. I handled all the paperwork and caught it. This COVID sounds very similar. I will take my chances until they have a seriously safe vaccine for this. It took years that my body could handle any flu shots with flu symptoms and missing time from work.
COVID 19 is a novel (ie new, never encountered by humans before) corona virus.Similar Severe Respiratory viruses SARS and MERS were encountered about eight years ago. Scientists were studying these two previous corona viruses for the eight years since they were first discovered. These scientists virologists and pharmacists were working in advance of the discovery of the next SARS or MERS type corona virus to emerge. Days after COVID 19 emerged in Wuhan China Chinese virologists released its genetic code to other concerned virologists world wide. Bio n tech had a reverse mRNA vaccine they had been developing and testing for eight to ten years already, they switched it up b with the new COVID 19 genome and tested if it could be used to fight off COVID 19. Their tests were successful B and that is how we go COVID 19 vaccine so fast plus then President Trump poured billions of dollars into ramping up COVID vaccine development within one year. These vaccines are safe and effective ten years of research had already gone into their development before COVID 19 came along. Any one who is vaccine hesitant in a time when we have safe and effective vaccines for COVID 19 is greatly misinformed. Take the vaccine folks! 😀🌈🥰
This is probably the most ludicrous statement I have ever read in my life !
They have already PROVEN that this shot does NOT keep you from getting covid NOR does it keep you from transmitting covid. They have also PROVEN that this shot, statistically / per ratio has killed or injured more people than covid has . It has also done more damge and killed way more people than All of the other vaccines combined. And I call it a shot because it is NOT a vaccine. It does NOT even come close to qualifying as a vaccine, and has NEVER met the qualifications of a vaccine. It is a shot. An experimental, investigational, trial shot. PROVEN to have many side effects, and many issues, and many deaths with it.
All for a virus that again is PROVEN to have a 99.987% survival rate. So maybe you need to ask yourself why you are so eager to shove an unproven POISON into your body and FORCE it onto everyone else. Maybe you should ask yourself WHY as an American you feel that we should be FORCED to give up our rights to make decisions about what we put into our own bodies. Or that people have have the right to BLACKMAIL us or hold us HOSTAGE over this shot !
SHAME ON YOU !!! and SHAME ON EVERY SINGLE school, business, hospital, store, etc that has blackmailed their students / patrons / employees and held them and their families HOSTAGE, ,over this dangerous, unapproved, trial, investigational, FAKE , “vaccine”.
That is a stupid statement . COVID has killed over 600,000 people in the USA. The vaccine prevents 90 percent of COVID 19 and protects 90 plus percent of hospitalizations and serious illness from COVID 19. Not dying or going into the ICU are very good things! Breakthrough infections are rare about 3 out of 100,000 vaccinated and are usually mild unless the individual has severe preexisting conditions like obesity, diabetes, COPD or asthma. I will take my chances with the vaccine any day and have since April. I just got a booster because I have a few pre existing conditions and would like to live to enjoy my retirement after 42 years of service as a Registered Nurse and Public Health Nurse 👩⚕️ Get vaccinated folks! It’s the only way to stop the pandemic 😷 You stop transmission when all the hosts are vaccinated.
Prevents 90% of Covid? Where did you do your research? That’s not true at all. It doesn’t prevent anything. You can contract and transmit Covid and vaccinated in a lot of cases are more transmissible
Shame on you. I pray to God to end this very real pandemic However , it looks like the principles of Darwin will win out. People like you, spreading misinformation , will keep it going until many more thousands die.
It was health care. Workers that worked during all of this without vaccine. Maybe they might know something that you don’t. Maybe you should understand that these Covid vaccine has not been fully tested. Maybe people don’t want that poison in their body. Since these companies have protection from lawsuits. Why would trust the government to do right?
Wow, it seems the libtard demons are getting stirred up for this young lady’s stance against something that’s yet to show specify its content. Stay strong Garfield. These sheeple have no empathy as they would like you to think. It’s merely fear due to an inability to reason or consider other methods that actually work. They prefer being led around by those profiting from a vaccine that’s creating more infections and as a result, deaths. You’ve proven by your stance here that you’ll be an excellent nurse.
Well said !
Going to be great when there are no nurses to treat patients because they have all been fired or run out of nursing because they choose to have an opinion that opposing the liberal narrative.
It is already having in Houston and many other places too I am sure!
I wonder how the Dr’s are going to handle their own work and the nurse’s work after most of the nurses are fired. God designed us whit an immune system keep it healthy the vaccine will destroy a healthy immune system
YEP !!
I think every single one of them should get up and walk out at the exact same time.
I KNOW the the thought of walking away from your job is terrifying, but even more terrifying than that is living in a country whose leaders feel they have the right to tell you that you HAVE to put something into your body against your will. Or living in a country where your employer can fire you for not getting a shot. Or living in a country where people are now being told they can no longer get on public, transportation, buy groceries, go out to eat or leave their homes without this shot.
These places will fall if EVERYONE walks out together. We cant stand alone bu together we are strong.
Where will they be when their entire nursing staff is gone.
And everyone is complaining of a nursing shortage ?
The hateful talk on this thread is amazing proving that the Star has been overrun by liberal clowns who believe that giving into the Master is the only way.
Saying you hope someone dies proves you hate filled liberal heart!
If these institutions would allow people to make their own decision more people would take
the vaccination.
Absolutely evil these commenters!
Those that work in healthcare are mandated to have other vaccines as well. This is no different. Refusal to get vaccinated to prevent those under your care from getting sick is contradictory to why most go into healthcare. What’s next, is she going to refuse to wear PPE and masks in the OR?
for all the idiots who are backing up this vaccine, it has not been FDA approved yet therefore it cannot be mandated meaning they can’t force you to take it in any shape or form. The fact that yall are arguing otherwise tells me how ignorant you truly are
The irreparable harm is the precedent set for disregard and/or deprivation of individual natural rights.
It is well documented that the vaccines being injected do not prevent Covid-19 infection, nor do the significantly reduce viral shedding (contagion) if the vaccinated person becomes infected.