KENNEWICK, WA – 94.2% of Washington State Patrol employees are keeping their jobs, being either completely vaccinated or under some type of religious or medical exemption or accommodation. 127 WSP employees who refused to get vaccinated, are now without a job.
“Those people we had to let go, I must say, are good people. They were not let go as any disciplinary action, only because of the vaccine mandate.” said WSP Director of Communications, Chris Loftis.
Loftis said it had to be done in order to comply with the state mandate.
“Whatever people’s reasoning may be for not getting the vaccine, whether it is religious, ethical, or moral, that’s understandable. But we have this mandate for a reason higher than all of that, and that is for the public health and safety of others.” said Loftis.
Some civil servant employees, like those who work in an office, were accommodated to work at home. An accommodation that WSP troopers could not receive.
“Troopers are out there in the field interacting with so many people each day, so they had to be vaccinated in order to do their job safely.” said Loftis.
Around 440 employees asked for exemptions and accommodations, and around 400 were granted those exemptions and accommodations. This was not the case for Robert LaMay, a WSP trooper of 22 years, who signed off on his last call.
“This is my final sign-off. After 22 years of serving the citizens of the state of Washington, I’m being asked to leave because I am dirty,” said LaMay, referring to him being unvaccinated. He continued with “I’d like to thank the citizens of Yakima County as well as my fellow officers within the valley. Without you guys, I wouldn’t have been very successful. And you kept me safe and got me to my family every night. Thank you for that.”
In response to this call, which is now becoming a viral video, Loftis said “This is an emotional time and people are very emotional right now. But we appreciate his service from the past 22 years and wish him well.”
WSP wishes the same for the rest of the 127 employees.
“We will miss them and we appreciate their service to this state, but we have to move forward and get COVID-9 behind us.” said Loftis.
Loftis said mandates like these are not meant to infringe on people’s choices but merely to protect the greater public safety.
“The science says that the more people get vaccinated the more we can get this COVID behind us.” said Loftis.
“Because this pandemic has disrupted our lives, our economy, our families, our careers, and our workplaces. So if we want this to be over with, those employees who are in public service have to be vaccinated so that we can be a safer society with this COVID killer behind us.” said Loftis. “Then we can begin to heal and have our lives, careers, workplaces, and social lives back on track.”
