POMONA, Calif.—More than 20 former Hacienda La Puente Unified School District (HLPUSD) employees are suing the district, all of whom objected to the district’s employee coronavirus vaccination mandate and allege they were wrongfully denied exemptions on religious grounds. The plaintiffs’ Pomona Superior Court lawsuit alleges religious discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. They seek unspecified compensatory and punitive damages in the amended suit brought on March 10. “The sincerity of an employee’s stated religious belief is usually not in dispute and is generally presumed or easily established,” the suit states. “Employers are not and should not be in the business of deciding whether a person holds religious beliefs for the proper reasons.” Instead of following the law to approve the plaintiffs’ bids for religious exemptions and reasonable accommodations, the school district denied their requests and terminated them, the suit states. An HLPUSD representative could not be immediately reached for comment. The Board …