Vermont single mom lost job, was denied unemployment over vaccination stance

A Vermont single mother of two was forced to lose her job and then was denied unemployment benefits from the state, causing her to become homeless and flee to Florida — all because she chose not to take a COVID-19 vaccine.

The story was initially covered in The Epoch Times, a conservative international newspaper and media company based in New York City. Reporter Patricia Tolson interviewed Karen “Kay Sea” Skau, who overcame a serious medical condition and found a new job and apartment, only to lose it all over her vaccination status.

While Skau’s vaccination status was a deal-breaker for her tenure with the kitchen cutting board company JK Adams in Dorset, Skau said her reputation as a political conservative was largely unwelcome to her co-workers.

The story has garnered some responses from social media — Twitter user @Gerge97558 called it “surreal” that people are now getting forced to move around the country due to vaccine mandates.

Another Twitter user suggests that Vermont has “Marxist Socialist Racist bigot Democrats” in control.

Skau has been in the news before. She was the victim of a physical attack at the Statehouse during a Vermont Liberty rally back in May when she was struck in the face and pepper-sprayed.

Skau said shortly after the incident, which garnered local media attention, a company-wide letter was distributed about asking employees to share their vaccination status.

On May 18 she informed the company she would not be volunteering such information, and shortly afterward she was scolded by a superior. She was then asked to sign a statement concerning her non-compliance with the company masking policy which she didn’t sign. After that she was fired.

Two weeks ago she found out that she would be denied unemployment assistance because she was to blame for losing her job.

Skau, unable to keep up with her home and car expenses, ultimately she became homeless. She left Vermont and now resides in Florida with a family member of a friend.

“Because I stood up against the vaccine mandate … that’s why I’m in Florida now,” she said.

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken numerous stances against COVID-19 mandates, both for masks and vaccines. On Twitter DeSantis reminded followers last week that increasing mandates further restricts the workforce.

Skau said JK Adams repeatedly told her she was good at her job, and that she does not believe her termination had anything to do with work performance.

The JK Adams company did not return True North’s request for comment.

Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.

39 thoughts on “Vermont single mom lost job, was denied unemployment over vaccination stance

  1. I wish her the best. I have my last day tomorrow but I don’t blame my company. The gun to their head isn’t the government but a customer or customers that require vaccination or weekly tests and masks— for those approved for religious or medical exemptions.

    I have a big and supportive family so I won’t be fleeing to a more free state. I will focus on running for State Senate of Windham County and creating content on video streaming platforms (milk toast videos on YouTube and more controversial takes on alt-tech platforms like bitchute).

    If you want to have a VTpoli conversation on YouTube or other platforms my email is macheteish@gmail.com. We have to take back the culture from the progressives and creating content— news videos but also music, books, and also fictional television/movies with a conservative bend to them is a tactic but we have to run for local positions from state seats to justice of the peace in order to make a difference.

  2. HEY, GOVERNOR SCOTT:

    FIX THIS PROBLEM WITH PRIVATE MANDATES AND UNIMPLOYMENT COMP
    DENIALS NOW !! NO NEED TO REPLY TO ME, GOV. FIX THIS NOW !

  3. Allison:
    Please stop blaming Red China for your problems and accusing me of under the control of Chinese Communist Party bc I call out your routine intellectual dishonesty.

    Failed to address any of the facts presented – as is the wont of the guilty as charged lol.

    Soo – in fact *you* are not being attacked -opinions as evidenced by your scribblings are – and fair game in any comment-platformed website.

    And as such pls answer the following:
    Why did you not read associated links Mr Bielawski provided as is the responsibility under ‘due diligence’ universally recognized by all respected responsible journalists and reporters

    Why did you not query Mr Bielawski as to his arrival at conclusions presented before slamming the story

    And further – why did you falsely accuse the victim when evidence was included that would prove her account

    As added reminder was hit in face twice with bare hands and a third time with a sign double-folded for increased harm then pepper sprayed *directly* in face

    If you disagree with aforementioned please provide evidence which ya have proved self to be averse

  4. So much of this thread boils down to the right of an employer to make policy for the business. I was in charge as owner of a business for 15 years with 30 employees off and on. I don’t need the lecture. So, I’ll ask the resident business owners here, when is the last time you ordered an employee to get an experimental shot for an illness like the flu, with a 99.5% recovery rate in order to keep their job?

    This so called vaccine is not proven safe, has killed people, is not approved and is authorized for experimental emergency use only with no means to sue the pharmaceuticals if you die or are injured? This is not like requiring hard hats, no drinking or drugs on the job, sexual harassments or any number of things. This is an invasive shot that can’t be stopped or removed once it’s in the body.

    Now the mask thing. If they are so great and work, why not require them for nasty colds or the seasonal flu that has magically disappeared since Covid-19 hit?

    Now the non-existent mandate. There has been no executive order, no emergency declared, there is no pandemic. This is driven by the media and medical frauds like Fauci. The mandate would have to go to OSHA who would write the rules for employers to follow which could take 6 months to a year or more to get it in place and distributed to all employers. The mandate would also have to be reviewed for it constitutionality. None of this has happened, there is no mandate.

    Now if employers want to act on their own they can. Most of them think they are going to be fined if they don’t follow Biden’s press release and that’s all it was but pushed by the slanted, dishonest media. Eventually, the truth will surface, it always does and these employers who trash their employees out of fear of the potent government overlords will be standing alone in court for what they are doing. All of this is coercion against free will. A job can be replaced, another school can be found, another people friendlier state can be moved to. If not, what’s the next government requirement to keep your job.

    The employers think they have a government gun to their heads and the employees have the employers gun to their head. Here’s the revolver miss employee. Spin the cylinder with one bullet. Close it, put it to you head and pull the trigger and you can keep your job if you don’t die! Go put that poison in your body and if you survive, you can come to work. All designed to divide and conquer us little people. Get the damn shot if you want to but don’t force others who don’t. And now all the vaxed people are wearing masks because their shots aren’t working!

  5. Wood Cutting Boards, Carving Boards, Wood Wine … – JK Adams
    jkadams.com/contact
    J.K. Adams Co. 1430 Route 30. Dorset, Vermont 05251. Telephone: 800-451-6118. International: 802-362-2303. Fax: 802-362-5472.

    JK Adams bad review:
    Photo of Rob H.
    Rob H.
    Chevy Chase, MD
    3
    61
    21
    3/17/2017

    I feel bad giving Adams 1 star, but I have no choice. My family lives in Manchester. I love supporting local businesses. I love that they host the farmers market in winter.

    I bought a cutting board from the store–a really big one. I love it.

    So why the bad review?

    Because I then bought a second cutting board, again at full price not a second–smaller, lighter. That was last August.

    I have taken good care of it. I wash it after use, then dry it, then let it dry standing up. It has never been dropped or the like.

    It should last years. In fact, my dad has an Adams cutting board from when I was a kid, still uses it.

    Instead, it has split in half, and it has other cracks at the sides.

    Sometimes you get a bad one right? So, I sent the store an email, including a photo of the board.

    I’ve gotten no reply.

    If the lousy board wasn’t bad enough, when they didn’t bother to respond, I decided I had no choice but to post here.

    Too bad.
    link includes a messaging option lol:
    https://www.yelp.com/biz/jk-adams-dorset
    Intgerestingly seven one-star reviews were removed…hmm

  6. Allison:
    “There is definitely more to learn, starting with the the assault at the rally.
    Something didn’t smell right to this retired reporter’s nose then, and it stinks even more now.”

    Really, really???

    Stunning lack of basic empathy for our shared humanity and as reporter for The Commons – leftwing birdcage-liner hailing from communist-infested Red Brattleboro – just a little unsurprised. This is why I’m not a feminist bc they are so hateful especially to conservative women – Naomi Wolf and Claire Paglia notwithstanding.

    Soo…”someone” needs to get on this? Why don’t you who claim to be a ‘journalist’ and reporter or your lefty friends chase her down and nail her a** to the nearest wall.

    What you are saying is Michael Bielawski – longtime intrepid journalist and hard-working reporter did not do due diligence? Did you bother to email Mr. Bielawski and query him before essentially slandering the man as well as victim many times over Ms. Skau? May I suggest you put self in her shoes and just try to imagine her horror and abusive treatment. Those who have suffered longtime abuse are traumatized with PTSD and many never recover -just tymltk.
    FYI:
    https://www.theepochtimes.com/vermont-woman-fired-denied-unemployment-for-refusing-vaccine-becomes-homeless-and-flees-to-florida_4030883.html?utm_source=appan2028130

    Additionally – world-renowned Epoch Times pictured the woman on the ground attended by paramedics – oh but Ms. Skau was faking all this? The incident was witnessed by all as Marxist-occupied Montpelier Police stood down and hid in the bushes.

    Sorry Allison but may I suggest ya quit calling self a journalist whose duty is to “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” because you yourself did not do due diligence and have slammed this woman and author of story. The info is all on record btw:
    https://vermontdailychronicle.com/2021/05/21/woman-beaten-pepper-sprayed-after-state-house-rally/

    My, my mighty stinky much lol

    • Personal attacks in response to comment… who is it that likes to do that again?
      Oh yeah, Soros funded ‘activists’.
      Old hat and you’re far from the first. I always take it has being right over the target when someone like you spends so much time defaming me.

      I always question who benefits?
      And in this case…did you figure it out yet?
      Divide and conquer, divide and conquer.
      Your comment par example.
      Clocks ticking and the CCP is licking its lips and rubbing its hands reading your comment.

      [You got all your ‘facts’ about me wrong and didn’t check with the primary source, me, btw. Not that you’re at all interested in facts …because you believe everything that you read. As long as it confirms your bias. Clearly.]

      • Ad Hominem arguments…that’s what I was looking for:

        “An ad hominem argument is a personal attack against the source of an argument, rather than against the argument itself. Essentially, this means that ad hominem arguments are used to attack opposing views indirectly, by attacking the individuals or groups that support these views.

        Ad hominem arguments can take many forms, from basic name-calling to more complex rhetoric. For example, an ad hominem argument can involve simply insulting a person instead of properly replying to a point that they raised, or it can involve questioning their motives in response to their criticism of the current state of things.”

  7. Remember the slave states?

    Free states and slave states?

    VERMONT is the first colony of the United Nations, of which our Governor, Lt Govermor*, and Levine are shills, puppets, pimping for the New World Order, ignoring their sworn constitutional duties to uphold and defend the republic and constitution from enemies foreign and most certainly domestic.

    If it weren’t for outside journalists we would not know of activities within our own borders due to the heavy hand of censorship, intimidation, supression of free speech.

    Our forefathers left mother England for freedom, freedom from the diabolically corrupt Church of England, which oversaw a country with power and corruption, control of the people via a kingdom run with the cover of “religion”, disguising the power and money idols that ran the day stripping peasants of their labors, servitude, bondage.

    We are yet at another, very similar religious experience. Our religion has most certainly changed from the love, grace and peace given to us by the LORD, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Remarkably, or unremarkably, left on our own again we find ourselves worshipping the God’s of power and money, once again. This time our colonizer is the United Nations, the New World Order (thank you president bush* extreme sarcasm off).

    Here we witness a modern witch burning, we do, away with flames today, being concerned about the possible global warming it may cause, we’ve branded her publically, taken away livelyhood, and made her flee. She is the modern day slave, running from an oppressive colony of the United Nations, not much different than kingdoms and serfs. What is the slogan of the New World Order, “you will own nothing and be happy!”, is not this the same as the master on the plantaion? Why has VERMONT adopted this housing model? This very soviet and peasant model?

    We are uneducated, misinformed by our educational system, kept from true wisdom that our nation was founded on. Had we read literature from our founding fathers we would have been able to discern truth from fiction, we would not have fallen for the sweet tongue of the uniparty in control of Montpelier and Washington.

    It is time to set our sail in anew direction, change direction, alas, repent. Ther is only one way it is a narrow path. TGBTG

    VERMONT, a free state from its inception, is but a former she’ll of itself.

    • * did not meet the very basic and inclusive requirements to hold the office of Lt Governor for Vermont.

  8. Sorry to hear another conservative has left for greener FREER pastures but in the long run that’s probably the best way to go… Sounds like her work was a group of
    leftyprogs so would always be tension in the work place and without hope of the
    sane retaining control of the state it’s a lost cause living here.
    If I wasn’t as old as dirt and living in a 1870’s house built by my ancestors i’d be
    beating feet for a less commi infested state with more warmth and longer sailing season.. Good luck Kay Sea…

  9. Who made all these decisions that caused this to happen to her?
    Where is this animal that runs the cutting board company that did this to this woman?
    And why do people want to work for a place that can treat people like that?
    What will they do to you?

    What are we doing about things besides complaining?
    Hold the people accountable and watch this stuff end really fast.

    Keep chasing down the story TNR… there is more to learn.

    • There is definitely more to learn, starting with the the assault at the rally.
      Something didn’t smell right to this retired reporter’s nose then, and it stinks even more now.
      The fact that this story is not corroborated, and only her word for it is taken, that this woman cries ‘victim’ – while all I’m seeing is ‘crisis actor’ and someone who is helping to demonize Vermont as (1) violent and (2) unfriendly to the point of fleeing (how did she afford that, homeless as she was?), serves a certain agenda of divide and conquer (us vs them).
      SOMEONE needs to do a good job investigating this story.
      There is a much deeper one going on that leads back to a stinky astro turfing operation that failed (but succeeded in demonizing influencers and leaders) here, meant to divide us against one another, and make us fear one another.
      Now, small business owners are being demonized for following state mandates.
      Small business owners are not the demons.
      Just a little TOO ‘dramatic’ from me from the get go, and a little too ‘crisis actor-y’ for me as well. That’s an actor’s face, hair and makeup.
      Something stinks and I hope at some point, some sticks a pin in it and lets it out.

      • Sorry, you are totally off base on this one. I know the other woman who was assaulted that day. Perhaps you enjoy seeing people forced to take an injection that they don’t want, need and may affect their health in a bad way. You probably believe in My Body My Choice as long as it applies to pregnancy. There is no mandate from Biden, do some research on that. I’ll even help you, read this article.

        https://thefederalist.com/2021/10/07/joe-bidens-vaccine-mandate-doesnt-exist-its-just-a-press-release/

        The employers are facing law suits because their actions are illegal.

        • As always, questioning the narrative is the the first casualty of truth.
          Vermont has been astro turfed big time, and dividing and conquering is the goal. Its worked…no cohesion at all. Lots of infighting, character assassination, and gaslighting of ‘allies.
          Case in point. You assume a lot because I question the narrative.
          Your response to me questioning the narrative fits right in with that agenda.
          In recent history, its completely destroyed the grass roots resistance to the scamdemic, and even more recently, made it illegal to dissent.
          You supporting THAT agenda?
          THINK. Geesus.

        • OH, YES HOWDY DOODY……….WE ARE ALL GOING TO SUE SUE SUE SUE……..AND WE’LL BE CALLING THE GOV AND VT HEALTH CHARLETANS AS WITNESSES….
          OH YEAH, YEAH, YEAH…..GONNA TALK ABOUT MANDATES, MANDATES, MANDATES….because there are none and were none…………

          • and we’ll be getting into a real life legal presentation based on…..wait for it: CONSPIRACY TO DENY CIVIL RIGHTS, etc etc

  10. Perhaps I am old fashioned but I always thought a employer set the conditions for a job and it an employee did not want to meet those conditions they could find another job.

    Seems kinda cheeky for an employee to expect to be able to tell the owner how they should run their business. Seems kinda irresponsible to then think you are entitled to the government giving you unemployment after you got fired for not being willing to follow the workplace rules.

    When I worked as Facility Manager, as well as driving a bus, for our local school district, I was required to get a Hep-C shot and was routine drug tested. Just part of the job. Some people sure seem to have a weird sense of entitlement these days.

    • John as usual you miss the point.
      The article states that she overcame a serious medical condition.
      Maybe she shouldn’t take a shot that has not been properly tested and approved because of her pre-existing medical condition.
      This is her right.
      We are being forced to become medical experiments and many people are now dying from the vaccine.
      She’s a single parent, she wants to live, she has kids to raise.
      Her situation has nothing in common with what went on at your Facility Management job.

      • Laura,

        According to the article “she was asked to sign to statement concerning her non- compliance with the company masking policy whiich she didn’t sign. Afterwards she was fired”.

        I worked jobs where hard hats and steel toed boots were a requirement of employment. Seems to me employers have a right to determine safety requirements that their employees for their own and other’s safety.

        It may seem harsh, but whatever happened to personal responsibility? Seems today that many people like to look for ways to portray themselves as victims and then expect the government to take care of them

        • Your personal responsibility is for you to decide what medical options and decisions are best for you, not your employer. Steel toed boots and hard hats have nothing to do with injecting an experimental drug into your body. How can you not see the difference? Critical thinking apparently escapes your comprehension. These employer will eventually have to pay. There are laws that support individual rights when dealing with medical decisions. The government does not own our bodies or our children.

          • Dano,

            The government has nothing to do with this one. It is a small private empolyer who has the right to determine what safety conditions her or she wants in their own private company.

            If she was in fact discriminated against due to her medical condition, she can make that case, but there is no mention of that happening in what was written. Just an attempt to collect unemployment. Looks from this article the reason she was fired was because she did not want to wear a mask.

            Again it may seem harsh, but she comes across to me as a self-entitled snowflake. Empolyer have some rights on how to conduct their own private businesses.

          • The employer wasn’t deciding what was in the best interest of the employee, only what is in the best interest of the workplace in which they all operate… a responsibility assigned to the employer by law. As an employer for the last 50 years, I have always had the authority and responsibility to require certain mandates. No alcohol consumption, no drug use, no using cell phones, no fighting, no sexual harassment, etc., etc.. I even have the right and authority to drug test employees and require certain physical characteristics, e.g. the ability to lift more than 40 pounds.

            This issue is one of ‘employment at will’. I have the right to hire whom I choose. My employees have the right apply for work AND quit at any time.

            And please – before anyone accuses me of supporting a leftist paradigm, the sentiment that ‘These employer[s] will eventually have to pay’, is spot on. In the final analysis, the employer is responsible for everyone’s safety and the success of the company – not the employee. If the employer acts unreasonably, workers will choose to work for the competition elsewhere. That’s why the employer makes the rules, and rightfully so.

            The egregiousness of this issue is that the employee was denied unemployment compensation by ‘the State. The employer pays unemployment insurance premiums, worker’s compensation insurance premiums and for various liability insurances to benefit employees. This employee didn’t quit. She was fired – and not for insubordination or another legal issue that may have disqualified her. If anything is in question here, it’s that ‘The State’ is, more and more, ‘controlling the means of production’. And that’s called ‘socialism’.

        • So John, I can’t wear a mask. Masks studies prove they are not effective at stopping aerosol droplets that carry viruses, proven over and over. Does that give the employer the right to end my livelihood even if I’m a good employee? Or was this employer another liberal authoritarian afraid of his own shadow in a business full of the same types? This is all BS and you should read my comment about Biden’s mandate is nonexistent from the Federalist above. Your old school opinion has nothing to do with reality.

          • And, even though you and Allison do not know this woman you both called her names and made assumptions about her based on what, nothing. This is the typical fall back for people who have no facts and are commenting on opinion made up in their own mind. Get is information from other than CNN or the other alphabet news channels all pushing censorship of the truth and facts of this killer vaccine.

          • Dano,

            Most every private employer will work with employees who have special medical needs and there are laws that protect employees from unfair discrimination in this regard.

            It appears from this article this was not the path chosen by the woman. It seems she was more interested in making a point based on her own personal beliefs. One certainly has a right to ones own beliefs but it does not extend overriding the workplace safety protocol determined by the owner of a private business.

            I would say an employer having a say in their own business is a very conservative position. If this not jive with the current reality all the more the shame.

            Finally, as a thought experiment, I tried to picture this woman complaining about her employer not doing as she liked, as being a overweight black woman expecting government benefits if things did not go her way and wondered if it might be looked at differently.

    • I’ve got aids, can I work at your establishment? I’ve got cancer, can I work? I’ve got the flu can I work?

  11. Skau, you did the right thing, standing up for your rights & beliefs. I am sorry that you had to leave but will pray your new beginnings are beneficial to you and your children. I am appalled your company & the state of Vermont did not do anything close to right. Their actions are deplorable. History is already repeating itself, we are nazi Germany all over again. Persecution without cause.

    • She does a great job at fulfilling the ‘us vs them’ role, though, doesn’t she?
      She’s the perfect actor.

      • If I get a medical procedure it’s none of your business. The science is not settled on any of this. People are dying after taking this shot. It is experimental use only and not FDA approved. If you are an old reporter you are also a poor researcher. This injection is not affective and it may be hazardous to your health. Your opinion stops at, medical decisions are private and none of your business, And neither are the decisions she makes for herself whether you like them or not.
        You come across as angry in most of your posts.

      • Unhinged much lol. Ya really jumped the gun on this one Allison. It *is* “us vs them” it is we the Patriot Conservatives against the leftwing control freaks including Rinos who hate us all and everything we stand for and whose camp you’re clearly in as evidenced by unhinged rant villifying a conservative woman under siege from multiple sides and persecuted for her stand. You owe Mike and this woman an apology for slandering. I for one now know you.

        • LOL… oh boy.
          So much personal attacks.
          CCP 101: When you can’t attack what someone says, attack the person.
          When discussion of questioning the narrative shuts down, then we are on a communist state.
          Bingo.
          Love to see all these great examples of exactly what the CCP intended to do, right here in these comments.
          Well done…doing the work of the CCP for them.
          I am NOT your enemy.

          Here’s what I’ve been doing the past 20 months because VT press was bought by the CCP – what have YOU been doing?

          https://www.bitchute.com/channel/WLo28dLV0g8r/

          • Who cares – it doesn’t amount to a pis**ole in snow if the rest of your “works” are all complete unadulterated bs lol 😀

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