UPDATE: See how Union College has responded here.
A sophomore at Union College, a liberal arts college in New York that receives federal funding, has been expelled for refusing to get a COVID booster shot, even though her doctor wrote a letter to the college warning that her getting a booster shot is “ill-advised” because she is experiencing severe health problems “presumably caused by the vaccine itself.”
Diamond “Ellie” Puentes, who is now living in Chicago, told the Chicago Thinker she was hesitant to get a booster shot because she experienced negative side effects after receiving a second dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine in September 2021. A day after receiving the second dose, she became sick, experiencing congestion, coughing, and a sore throat. Less than ten days later, she started vomiting and having diarrhea. She also had a sharp pain in her upper abdomen.
These health problems culminated in her going to an emergency room, where she stayed for six hours and was diagnosed with gastritis. Seven months later, she continues to have symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea.
Puentes told the Thinker she had no health problems before getting a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Doctors were unable to give her a diagnosis as to why she got as sick as she did.
In January 2022, Union College announced that a COVID booster shot would be required for all students. Students can be exempt from the mandate if they have “approved medical or religious reasons.”
Puentes was not required to get a booster shot until March, as Union College requires a student to wait six months after receiving a second dose of a COVID vaccine before getting a booster shot.
After receiving an email reminding her to get a booster shot, Puentes sent an email expressing her health concerns to Union College’s Office of Community Standards, the Director of Community Standards, the Wellness Center, and her class dean.
In response, Puentes was told to send medical documentation of her gastritis diagnosis to Union College’s Wellness Center. When she did so, the Wellness Center informed her that the documentation she submitted does not exempt her from the booster shot requirement.
After the Wellness Center denied her request for a medical exemption, Puentes became sick again, vomiting and experiencing diarrhea and shortness of breath for consecutive days. Puentes told the Thinker that when she visited her college’s Wellness Center, her college’s Director of Health Services, Angela Stefanatos, asked, “Are you here because you don’t want to get the booster or because you’re truly sick?”
Puentes then contacted her primary care physician, Dr. Thomas M. Nelson, to discuss her concerns that her health problems are associated with the COVID vaccine. On April 11, Dr. Nelson wrote a letter to Union College, expressing that in his opinion, Puentes should “be granted an exception from receiving the booster COVID vaccine.” He further wrote, “She currently is in an unfavorable state of health, presumably caused by the vaccine itself and getting this vaccine is ill-advised.”
A day later, Puentes sent Dr. Nelson’s letter to Stefanatos. In response, Stefanatos told Puentes that her request for a medical exemption had been denied because the “vaccine is not associated with gastritis” and there “is no evidence in the literature that vaccination for [COVID] weakens the immune system.”
According to a Pfizer analysis of adverse effects of the COVID vaccine, gastritis is listed as an adverse event of special interest. A report from the UK also includes gastritis as an observed reaction to Pfizer’s vaccine.
Puentes told the Thinker that she called Pfizer to report her adverse reactions. She claimed that during this phone conversation, a Pfizer employee confirmed to her that patients have reported experiencing gastrointestinal complications, such as vomiting and diarrhea.
Puentes was told by Stefanatos that the decision was “final” and that she would be subject to “conduct action” should she still refuse to get a booster shot. In a separate email, Puentes was told her classes will be dropped and that she has 72 hours to move out of her dorm.
Within these 72 hours, Union College deactivated Puentes’ food card, prohibiting her from eating in all dining halls despite her still living on campus.
When Puentes contacted Union College’s Director of Community Standards about her food card being deactivated, she was told that it was a mistake.
As a last resort, Puentes asked to meet with one of her deans about her request for a medical exemption. This request for a meeting was denied, and Puentes was instead told to meet with Stefanatos.
During this meeting, of which the Thinker has obtained audio, Stefanatos repeated the claim that “there is no indication that the COVID vaccine weakens your immune system.” Stefanatos also said that Puentes has a “choice” to go to college, that Puentes can get the Moderna vaccine if she does not want to get the Pfizer vaccine, and that it is riskier for Puentes to get COVID than it is for her to get the vaccine.
Puentes also requested to meet with the president of Union College, David Harris. Harris denied her request.
Puentes told the Thinker that a professor at Union College told her there are “about fifty other students fighting the mandate and seeking exemptions and [she] was the only one who was unenrolled.”
In a statement to the Thinker, Puentes wrote that her expulsion “felt personal,” as she is a first-generation, low-income college student and a recipient of an academic scholarship that paid for the majority of her tuition. She feels that “it’s easy to let someone like [her] go,” because Union College “no longer had to pay for [her] education and knew that [she] did not have the financial resources to fight back.”
Puentes finds it “unjust for an institution to withdraw a student or fire a staff member because they have chosen not to comply with a policy with valid reasoning.” She said she did not comply with the mandate because “if [she] had chosen to stay and attain the booster, it would’ve enforced that what the institution is doing is okay.”
Union College did not respond to a request for comment.
Wow. Sickening abuse of power. I hope Puentes finds the right lawyer and sues this stupid wannabe- tyrants administration very publicly. And I hope she finds another, more enlightened college to take her in. They’ll be lucky to get this courageous student.
I go to see daily some web pages and blogs to read content,
but this blog gives feature based articles.
It is time for Ms. Puentes to find a very good lawyer. It will be very hard for the college to defend this type of discrimination and forced coercion efforts for a vaccine that is still experimental, and for an age-group that is at no risk for severe Covid-19 infection.
We’re a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community.
Your site offered us with valuable info to
work on. You have done an impressive job and our whole community will
be thankful to you.
Sadly, we know quite a bit about the way Union College deals with students who have physical and mental disabilities and who request accommodations. While not directly related to the school’s Covid policies, our family was subjected to similar bureaucratic bullying by the Dean of Students and her staff, who similarly overruled our daughter’s team of doctors.
God bless your family and Ellie Puentes…
It’s absolutely deplorable and infuriating that people are being treated this way based on a disability or a decision made for one’s own body.
I dream of the day where institutions (and the lack of humanity of those who run them) go the way of the dodo. I hope Ellie Puentes finds a lawyer who will POUNCE on Union College.
I hope she gets a lawyer, there are many who would take this case pro bono, and sue the pants off of Union. Union has been completely unreasonable with their mandates. I too had a student who had a disability that was denied on a different issue on a minor technicality. There was no effort to provide a reasonable accommodation. It’s a joke that Dean Fran’Cee had somewhere to go. All she seems to do is partake in sporting events and the activities on campus. The arrogance of the leadership at Union is shameful. They claim to be a “STEM” school, but don’t explore the science. They only listen to their over paid whiny professors. Do NOT send your student to Union College!
check out the publication record of that “dean”. Most of my doctoral students are better published after one year that this non-entity. Why would any parent pay for this non-education by totalitarians?
She needs to hire attorneys from FIRE. She will win for sure. I am certain FIRE would gladly take her case.
Good for her. Maybe she can now go to a real college and get a degree in a field of study that will be useful and that will help her achieve her life’s goals.
Lawyer here – tried to look at this objectively and have to say the facts do not support the slant of the article.
1 – her GI symptoms started months before she received her first vaccine shot
2 – after getting 2 doses she went to her doctor and was told her symptoms were NOT related to the vaccine
3 – after she was told she had to get the booster – but without actually getting it – she got sick again – how can this be related to the vaccine?
4 -medical letter in support is based on “what the patient has told me” not on any medical information at all
5 -claim that she was the only student to be unenrolled is something she heard from an unnamed teacher – no way to determine if this is true or not
6 – because this is about an individual’s health – Union by law cannot say anything in its own defense
I am all for freedom for everyone to advocate their position and beliefs – but PLEASE check the facts first
Your fact 1 and fact 2 do not agree with the following excerpt from the article
“Puentes told the Thinker she had no health problems before getting a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Doctors were unable to give her a diagnosis as to why she got as sick as she did.”
But they do agree with the email stating “you marked weight loss and GI symptoms proceeded the two vaccines, your weight was down 20 pounds from your baseline in June 2022 and you received 2 doses of Pfizer in September.” Would be interesting to know what hose prior GI symptoms were and more about the weight loss. A lot of things (including stress) can cause the symptoms listed in the article. Don’t think the article is presenting the whole story, just Ms Puentes side.
M brinkman, Marie C, I recommend you each take some remedial course in reading comprehension. There really can be no analysis of facts when the health center director said the “baseline in June 2022”. How can there be a baseline from a date in the future? So, how can we assume ANYTHING that Stefanatos says is correct, with this lack of attention to detail? That is the closest thing to something specific that we have from her, and it is WRONG! And yet, you sad sacks are giving her word authority?
This scenario probably has most to do with Ellie being young and gorgeous, and in my opinion, Stefanatos looks like your basic sl*g c**t. Women would never be petty like that, would they? 😉
Soooo much cancer since 2021, especially brain cancer. You should research the increase in cancer since mid-2021, it is frightening. Probably just the stress of the war, or maybe people being angered by the Lia Thomas scenario. Those things must be the cause of increased cancer, anything but the jabs!
If that is what you got from the article and letter that was posted. I have to say your not much of a lawyer because literally most of what you claim is not even in the letter or article. Sounds like you might be trying to do damage control for the so called school or just slander the student and the publication.
What about the fact of any current health status?
Assume her gastritis has nothing to do with the vaccine,her doctor is advising against getting the. Booster because of her current health condition. Should be good enough to exempt her.
You are as ignorant as the quacks that call themselves “doctors”. This is gene therapy, not a “vaccine”. It includes murdered babies in it, under the label of MRC-5. Lung tissue and eye tissue from babies that were killed in the mothers womb. Clown that you are, I seriously doubt you have the ability to lubricate a bicycle chain.
I seriously hope you’re not a practicing doctor given that level of ignorance. There are valid reasons to oppose getting a second vaccine dose on an individual basis and to be angry about someone’s expulsion, but the idea that the vaccine is gene therapy is complete nonsense.
Wow how diluted you are. Its common knowledge that its gene therapy and not real vaccine. The uncommon knowledge is that its got nanobots in it. Never gonna get em.
The mRNAs are not even a gene therapy. They are just poison. Read the Pfizer data dump. 80,000 more pages released today.
Covid vaccine virus are known to invade the gut bacteria and reproduce as bacteriophages within the gut, increasing the damages. Also, 3 doses of a vaccine that does not stop infections, hospitalizations, or deaths could kill her. It may be that some of the LNP mRNAs have invaded her gut bacteria and are continuing to create pathogenic spike protein in the gut. Try studying some of what is presented here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Y18P3TCjY and here: http://www.kathydopp.info/COVIDinfo/Vaccines/VaccineADE
Also, you seem to be inventing a separate set of facts. According to the article, her symptoms began after the Covid injections: *Less than ten days later, she started vomiting and having diarrhea.”
First vax injury is under reported. Yes there are studies that link your immune system weakened for the covid vax. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027869152200206X Innate immune suppression by SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccinations: The role of G-quadruplexes, exosomes, and MicroRNAs
Author links open overlay panelStephanieSeneffaGregNighbAnthony M.KyriakopouloscPeter A.McCullough Food and Chemical Toxicology
Volume 164, June 2022, 113008
After 2 vaccinations, why must there be so much resistance regarding a booster?? As her health is being challenged, all good reason that she avoid taking ANY vaccine. It’s apparent that the college is more concerned with a vaccine, than it is to teach. I suggest she find a school that is more serious! AND that she continue to spread the news of her experience at this school, in the media, contact supportive groups throughout the US. Because, her experience can help MANY other students in similar circumstances. I THANK her for her courage and determination to speak up! You have nothing to loose. And everything to gain respect and support.
As a proud graduate of Union College (and a licensed physician) I am surprised and saddened by their response. Perhaps there is more to the story. We can only hope. Frederic Bruhn, MD (’61)
As a once proud graduate of Union College, please let Ms. Puentes that I am, along with many fellow alumni, profoundly embarrassed by this news. I wish that I could say that Union is somehow different from most other small liberal arts colleges, but it’s gone woke – just like the rest of them. I, for one, can no longer support them.
There are much better schools, in much better locations, that don’t require booster shots. Time to move on and take your money with you.
Take a break, get better, and reapply for Fall Admission to a different school outside of S***cago.
-Best
1. Union is in NY, not S***cago, buddy.
2. Having just recently graduated from Union myself, I find this article wholly misleading. Of course the administration is not perfect. If you’re looking for a school with a perfect admin you’re going to be looking for a long time, because it simply doesn’t exist. I do, however, know the administration to be extremely thorough. After working with them personally on many occasions, I can tell you it’s not a simple job by any means. They always try and make the best decision possible with the information they have presented to them. There is clearly some information that the administration of Union has that hasn’t been presented to the public (most likely not legally allowed to if it deals with the students medical history), and especially hasn’t been presented in this article by this propaganda journalist who is writing this article to support his own agenda, whatever that may be.
3. The AOP stance has bothered me slightly. I am close friends with many of the students attending Union thanks to the AOP program. To say that the college simply does not care for the AOP students is simply just wrong. They are equally valuable as every other student attending the university. Additionally, the AOP students have always had even more support (financially and organizationally) from the university than the average student. Organizationally, there are special areas designed to create an AOP community, there is staff dedicated specifically to supporting the AOP students, and each year there are special programs and tutoring specifically for AOP students. Financially, I cannot speak for every AOP student, only the ones who I am close to that I have discussed the topic with. Of those that I have talked to, all of them attend Union completely free of tuition and room and board.
1. Union is in NY, not S***cago, buddy.
2. Having just recently graduated from Union myself, I find this article wholly misleading. Of course the administration is not perfect. If you’re looking for a school with a perfect admin you’re going to be looking for a long time, because it simply doesn’t exist. I do, however, know the administration to be extremely thorough. After working with them personally on many occasions, I can tell you it’s not a simple job by any means. They always try and make the best decision possible with the information they have presented to them. There is clearly some information that the administration of Union has that hasn’t been presented to the public (most likely not legally allowed to if it deals with the students medical history), and especially hasn’t been presented in this article by this propaganda journalist who is writing this article to support his own agenda, whatever that may be.
Additionally, they get other expenses paid for by the AOP Program i.e. all their textbooks, typical school supplies, free printing, etc. To say that Union simply doesn’t value AOP students is absurd and a bit frustrating.
4. Considering the finances of the AOP students I have interacted with, I’m not sure what the gofundme is for? Maybe to go attend another university without AOP? Truly wondering, please let me know.
Additionally, they get other expenses paid for by the AOP Program i.e. all their textbooks, typical school supplies, free printing, etc. To say that Union simply doesn’t value AOP students is absurd and a bit frustrating.
4. Considering the finances of the AOP students I have interacted with, I’m not sure what the gofundme is for? Maybe to go attend another university without AOP? Truly wondering, please let me know.
Attending Union was at me of the best decisions I have made in my lifetime. The people I met and interacted with on a daily basis had profound influences on my social, academic, and emotional development. Was it a perfect experience? No. I had my share of issues along the way, but that’s life. The lows, as much as the highs, were learning experiences that I have learned to cherish as well. I hope for the sake of Union College, this debacle can be figured out. As for the readers, I hope that you don’t simply take this article at face value. Rather, think critically, put yourself in the shoes of all parties, and see how hard of a decision it would be.
I apologize for the strange format those comments came out in. The website has repeatedly crashed on me.
Anyone dumb enough to take the initial shots SHOULD just get things over with and take the Boosters as well.
Yesterday, while I was at work, my sister stole my apple ipad and tested to see if it
can survive a 25 foot drop, just so she can be a youtube sensation. My iPad is now destroyed and she has
83 views. I know this is entirely off topic but I had
to share it with someone!
The letter itself says she tested positive for strep multiple times and the email says her gastrointestinal symptoms and weight loss preceded her vaccination. I agree that her immune system was probably not in a place to get the vaccine at that moment, but there’s almost certainly more to this story than what has been reported.
This poor student. This is discrimination at its core. She seriously needs to litigate and then find a school who doesn’t force people to get a harmful injection that doesn’t even work for it’s intended purpose. The amount of people I now know of who are chronically sick after receiving these shots is horrifying and sad.Thank you for bringing her story to the light.
Thanks for every other informative site. The place else could I am getting that type of information written in such a perfect way? I have a undertaking that I am simply now working on, and I have been on the glance out for such info.
I like what you guys are up too. Such smart work and reporting! Keep up the superb works guys I¦ve incorporated you guys to my blogroll. I think it’ll improve the value of my site 🙂
my daughter was told start medical school and get the covid shot or you are a threat to the community. lol we all know that the vax does not protect anyone from getting covid. My daughter had IgG, IgA and T-cell immunity from a previous covid infection. She is also allergic to polysorbate and PEG in the vaccines. If a medical school won’t give a medical exemption you can see this is not about the science. It is about control and these vax are not FDA approved. Pfizer lost a 2.1 billion dollar lawsuit for fraud in 2009 and moderna never brought a product to market. J&J is being sued for carcinogens in their baby powder and shampoos. You are all fools to trust these criminals
Stop going to universities because universities are nothing but an evil place of indoctrination, propaganda, lies and immorality. Universities will make you see a thing in one specific way in order to serve the ultimate aim to their globalist masters like B. Gates/ fed banks etc. People don’t use their wisdom that’s the reason why the business model of universities and colleges is flourishing and expanding! Universities end goal is to make easy money through the sheeple they enroll every 2-3 months. Enrolment used to be after a year but now with globalisation, they are enrolling students almost every month and thus raking and robbing the common people of their basic wealth and health!
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your sites really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back down the road. Cheers
I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself
or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz respond as I’m looking
to design my own blog and would like to find out where u
got this from. thank you
Pretty great post. I simply stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I’ve truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing in your rss feed and I’m hoping you write once more soon!
Hello.This article was extremely fascinating, particularly because I was browsing for thoughts on this topic last Thursday.
You made some respectable factors there. I looked on the internet for the issue and found most individuals will go along with with your website.
I have recently started a blog, the information you provide on this web site has helped me greatly. Thanks for all of your time & work. “The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual.” by Vince Lombardi.
Hi there, just became alert to your blog through Google, and found that it’s truly informative. I am going to watch out for brussels. I’ll appreciate if you continue this in future. A lot of people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!
I and my friends appeared to be reviewing the nice hints found on the blog while then I got a terrible suspicion I had not thanked the site owner for those techniques. All of the people had been thrilled to read through all of them and have now clearly been taking advantage of these things. We appreciate you getting very kind as well as for settling on these kinds of remarkable information most people are really desperate to be informed on. My very own honest regret for not saying thanks to you sooner.
wonderful points altogether, you just gained a brand new reader. What would you recommend in regards to your post that you made a few days ago? Any positive?
Very interesting subject, regards for posting. “It is much easier to try one’s hand at many things than to concentrate one’s powers on one thing.” by Quintilian.
It?¦s really a nice and useful piece of information. I am satisfied that you just shared this useful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
Hello, Neat post. There is a problem along with your web site in internet explorer, might check this?K IE nonetheless is the market leader and a big portion of other folks will pass over your great writing due to this problem.
I was looking at some of your content on this website and I conceive this site is very instructive! Continue posting.