A New York appeals court has backed a ruling that said a group of Buffalo teachers and their union engaged in "an unlawful strike" when they called in sick the day after a school melee happened and a non-student combatant yelled out, "I'm coming tomorrow with a gun to shoot up this … f****** school" and "[i]f you show up to work tomorrow, you're going to all die."

The Appellate Division, Third Department, court in Albany said that "substantial evidence" existed to uphold the decision that 16 public school teachers and their statewide union had violated a state Civil Service Law section known as the "Taylor Law." The law says that "[n]o public employee or employee organization shall engage in a strike, and no public employee or employee organization shall cause, instigate, encourage, or condone a strike," according to the appellate opinion.