By Guy Page
On her first day back at work after being struck and pepper-sprayed by an angry leftist at a VT Liberty rally on May 15, Karen “Kay Sea” Skau of Poultney was fired for refusing to wear a mask and submit vaccination information to her then-employer, the Epoch Times reported October 4.
According to the news report headlined “Vermont Woman Fired, Denied Unemployment for Refusing Vaccine, Becomes Homeless and Flees to Florida,” Skau was fired from her manufacturing job at Dorset kitchen accessories producer JK Adams for not submitting to company masking and vaccine mandates.
Skau was then denied unemployment because losing the job was ‘her fault.’ She soon became unable to pay her rent. She and boyfriend Josh Curiale now live at his mom’s home in Florida.
Chronicle readers with good memories will recall that the 4:30 pm, May 15 attack by Dawn McElwain of Calais on Skau and and Shona Reiter of Stowe had its roots in an encounter three hours earlier on the State House steps during the VT Liberty speaking event, when a group of girls including McElwain’s 14-year-old daughter was playing loud music with racially offensive lyrics. According to the police investigation, the song was ‘Good Morning Tokyo.’ Lyrics provided by police in the court affidavit contain nine uses of the N-word, as well as other profanity.
Skau says she asked the girls why they were listening to disgusting music that used the N-word. According to police, the girls then informed McElwain they had been called the N-word. Both Skau and McElwain told police that McElwain drove up to the State House lawn and confronted Skau for the alleged name-calling. At that point their stories diverge. McElwain claims she was pursued by angry protesters and only struck Skau and used pepper spray in self-defense in her attempt to flee. Skau, Reiter and other onlookers said McElwain instigated the confrontation, refused to listen, approached the women, and then pepper-sprayed them both and Struck Skau with her hand and with a sign one of the girls had stolen earlier from the State House lawn. That McElwain was charged and accepted a diversion agreement strongly suggests the police accepted the latter story.
Two days later, recuperating at home, Skau received an email from the boss saying masking and proof of vaccination would be required. Skau had already let it be known that she would not comply with either.
Her first day back on the job, she was lectured about her unwillingness to comply and then pressured to sign a statement admitting she would not wear a mask. The Epoch Times describes what happened next:
“After refusing to sign the form, Skau was summarily fired. Upon returning home, Skau immediately filed for unemployment. For three months she was assured by the unemployment office that everything was fine, until two weeks ago, when she was informed her benefits were being declined. “They said you don’t qualify because it was your fault you got fired,” Skau said. “So, because I stood up against the vaccine mandate, they aren’t going to give me unemployment.”
Jobless and without unemployment, Skau and Josh moved to Florida.
“This was my chance in life, to get on my own and live independently,” Skau told the Epoch Times. “You know, I did my job to the best of my ability and they kept telling me how good I was doing at my job. So it wasn’t because I was a bad employee. It was simply because I stood up to this vaccine thing and said, no more.”
During a Messenger interview yesterday, Kay Sea told the Chronicle how the Epoch Times found her and her story.
“Someone had asked on Facebook if anyone had been fired because of the vaccine mandates,” Kay Sea said. “I simply said yes. Patricia [Tolson, Epoch Times reporter] then reached out to me and asked about my story. She then told me she wanted to do an in-depth interview with me. I spent over an hour and a half on the phone with her and then she published her article yesterday.”
Life in Florida is better in many ways. “It hasn’t been easy. But at least I am free and I don’t have to harm my health just to work.”
Like Brian Judd of Barre and his merry band of 911 flag volunteers, she took a stand for flying Old Glory on September 11.
“I did manage to get the city of Palm Coast to put their big American flag back up at a main intersection here,” Kay Sea said. “It was mysteriously taken down the day before 9/11. I took it upon myself to point it out on the local FB groups and the post blew up. The city of Palm Coast got a lot of feedback and blow back from the locals so they hung a flag back up and posted a response to the locals. It felt really good to make a little bit of a difference down here.”
But popular opinion to the contrary, Florida isn’t always the Vax-Free NIrvana it’s made out to be.
“Florida isn’t without its problems though,” Kay Sea said. “We found that out when Josh had a medical emergency and we ended up getting kicked out of the emergency room after being there for over an hour because one of the nurses asked if we were vaccinated. Once she found out we weren’t vaxed she got hostile towards us and got her charge nurse to tell us to leave. Josh hadn’t even received treatment yet and his blood pressure was dangerously high. He could have had a stroke or worse right there in the parking lot.”
The mother of two grown sons misses her Vermont family and friends.
“I deeply miss Vermont and my Patriot friends up there. New England has always been my home and it’s breaking my heart to be so far away from my sons and everything I love up there.”