Fla. Christian School Fires Teacher Over

Fla. Christian School Fires Teacher Over

www.foxnews.com

A former Florida teacher said the administrators of a Christian school where she was employed fired her because she became pregnant just before her wedding, MyFoxOrlando.com reported.

Now, she has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against the private school in St. Cloud, Fla.

Jarrestta Hamilton said April of 2009 was the happiest month of her life. She was a newlywed and newly pregnant and teaching fourth graders at Southland Christian School. She said it was about that time when she approached by the administration to talk about "maternity leave."

She said when asked, she admi

(visit the link for the full news article)

Well, I think there is more to this story than what we are getting.
Although, correct in the interpretation, where is the mercy, or the forgiveness. After, she did, I assume, marry the same man that got her pregnant. David did face consequences of his sin with Bathsheba, see 2 Sam 12. (his new born son died) David also, when he was confronted with what he has done was convicted by his sin and repented to God and asked forgiveness which brought him back to right standing. Sin always has consequences, but, with Godly repentance, not a lawyer, she can be restored to a right relationship with God and possibly the school.

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Well, it is a Christian School (oxymoron, if you ask me), and it is a private institution, so I suppose the classic argument will be that the school was within their rights to fire her.

I completely disagree with the school's decision. I think it was discriminatory, short-sighted and just plain petty.

However, I don't really know how much legal recourse the former teacher will have. It will be interesting to see how the courts rule on this one. From my perspective it is absolutely abhorrent, but from the typical 'Christian' perspective the firing may be justified. The real question is do private schools have a right to terminate employment based on religious pretenses?

I think they probably do, though I disagree with it.



Also, there was this:

Ultimately, it could be the federal courts that decide who is right and who is wrong. Hamilton also claims that the school violated her privacy by telling parents and students why she was fired.

Even if the woman is not given her job back, she does deserve some sort of reparation for that. It was downright nasty of the school to publicly expose her "fornication before marriage" ( ) to the students and parents, not to mention completely unnecessary.




EDIT for grammar




[edit on 9-6-2010 by drwizardphd]

From another article about this firing:

(prepare yourself for serious comedy)

"We request that Jarretta withdraw her complaint and consider the testimony of the Lord"

Source


Translation: "We are a bunch of whacky ass christians who dont want to get sued, so please please please believe what we tell you a giant invisible guy in the sky says instead"


Sigh.....religion is a cancer on humanity.

Mary became pregnant with Jesus before all the proper traditions were followed and hence needed special consideration of the High priest of the time.

What the hell. Why not just make her get a tattoo of a cross on her forehead and be done with it!

"If they're going to single her out because she conceived prior to marriage, but allow people to remain employed who conceived during a marriage, isn't that discriminating against her based on her marital status?" asked Gay, according to MyFoxOrlando.com.

They, as a private Christian school, have every right to do that. It is a Christian school run by the church that people send their children to in order to receive an education, but also to learn the teachings of their chosen religion.

Christians teach abstinence before marriage, and this teacher obviously doesn't follow that same belief system. They can't very well have a teacher teaching Christian values when she does not have the same value system. She is in a position to highly influence her students and her life choice goes against the school's teachings. Though she may have ultimately married the man it's about what she did before the marriage.

Seems to me that this is a seperation of church and state issue. It's kind of ludicrous to say that a private religious school can't apply their religious teachings to their employment policies.

Hamilton also claims that the school violated her privacy by telling parents and students why she was fired.

I have to agree with her here, the school had no right to tell anyone why she was fired, for that she should be compensated.


www.foxnews.com...

The school is in the right , there should be no debate about that. If you do not subscribe the religion then don't apply to teach there is pretty simple no?

Lucky for her she is not teaching at an islamic school, they don't fire you they have your head removed LOL(just kidding)

I don't agree with their decision, but its a private school. As long as they aren't receiving any federal funding, they're within their rights to set their own policies with regards to personal conduct, particularly those based on religious grounds. If she knew it was against school policy, I don't think she has any legal recourse.

I'd say stupid, but well within their rights.

It's no different than an employer firing you for not following their dress code, or any other rules.

Its a christian school and that is surely one of their "codes", rather written or not.

And unless they have a type of nondisclosure agreement, relaying that and why she was fired to parents and students is also well within their rights. And of course they did it to show that she is "bad" (mmkay) and she is being punished for it, not only by us but by god.

So you better watch out kiddies, and your unmarried dog too.

Unfortunately, the folks who claim this is a non-issue are right in this case. The key concept here is that this is a private Christian school. These people expect their teachers to behave according to the standards set out in the scripture. I know, I know it's dumb but it's valid.

But hey.... wasn't that Jesus fellow born out of wedlock?

Wow, i literally laughed out loud when I read the reason for termination.
I mean it's never funny when someone loses their job, but this is so stupid it's laughable.

It's within their rights but parents should wonder what type of incredibly dumbed down administration this is.

Parents should find their kids another school that isn't so blind.

Well, If they can fire this teacher I think they should go one step further and find out if any of the kids attending the school were concieved out of wedlock. I would imagine that there are a few of them there. Let's see if they truely have these convictions when it amounts to declining people who pay to have thier children attend.


Edited for grammar

[edit on 9-6-2010 by Gargamel]

Originally posted by Violater1


Well, I think there is more to this story than what we are getting.
Although, correct in the interpretation, where is the mercy, or the forgiveness. After, she did, I assume, marry the same man that got her pregnant. David did face consequences of his sin with Bathsheba, see 2 Sam 12. (his new born son died) David also, when he was confronted with what he has done was convicted by his sin and repented to God and asked forgiveness which brought him back to right standing. Sin always has consequences, but, with Godly repentance, not a lawyer, she can be restored to a right relationship with God and possibly the school.

www.foxnews.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Luckily, we live in a country where employment laws are not dictated by the Christian Religion, or any religion for that matter. Just imagine if we did!

A gay person would not be able to work legally, heck in some Southern States even black people would not be able to. Thankfully, religion is NOT in charge and this will be viewed as discrimination in the eyes of the law. Their religious views have nothing to do with the legality of a person working there or not, in this country at least.

I think slowly the people are waking up and these medieval methods will soon be eradicated. Heck, who knows, if we find there is life out there, people may change their minds completely and see that religion has no part in modern society, in its current shape. Perhaps if it adapted. But how do you adapt something that's based on being infallible?

All of these so-called "private" religious schools are taxpayer-subsidized, as they don't pay taxes like everyone else, so I don't think they've the right to impose their prejudices and violate fair employment laws.

If they want to give up their religious exemption and pay taxes like everyone else, then maybe they can be as stupid and silly as they like. But as long as they claim a tax exemption, they are being subsidized by state and federal taxpayers.

Sigh...Christians are always self-contradictory, bleating about forgiveness while they practice intolerance and hate.

I don't know about this particular school, but any "Christian" school or organization I've ever applied to has a morality clause that you have to sign, some before they will even consider you for the position. If she signed the clause, she has no right to sue for termination. That the school disclosed her reason for termination is another matter. I'm curious to see where this case goes.

reply to post by ModernAcademia

It's within their rights but parents should wonder what type of incredibly dumbed down administration this is.

Parents should find their kids another school that isn't so blind.

A good majority of the parents that send their children to Christian schools won't see this school administration as being "dumbed down". The whole point of them sending their children to these schools is so that they can be taught the values of their religion.

The teacher violated a morality clause and was then subject to termination. It is a private institution, so they are well within their rights.

reply to post by Kharron

Luckily, we live in a country where employment laws are not dictated by the Christian Religion, or any religion for that matter. Just imagine if we did!

A gay person would not be able to work legally, heck in some Southern States even black people would not be able to. Thankfully, religion is NOT in charge and this will be viewed as discrimination in the eyes of the law. Their religious views have nothing to do with the legality of a person working there or not, in this country at least.

Religion is in charge inside of a private Christian school. This is not discrimination, she violated a morality clause.

People that don't follow a religion tend not to send their children to a religious school. Those that do expect for the teachers at that school to act according to the religious values that the schools adhere to.

The school has to think about the message that it's teachers are sending to the students. In this particular case her message was not one that falls in line with their teachings.

A lot of companies talk about why they supposedly fired their employees these days. Wal-mart managers gossiped about why they terminated me to my former co-workers and they were not even honest about why they fired me. At least the school is telling the truth I reckon.

She's better off without them as employers maybe.

[edit on 6/9/2010 by Jessicamsa]

Originally posted by brainwrek
From another article about this firing:

(prepare yourself for serious comedy)

"We request that Jarretta withdraw her complaint and consider the testimony of the Lord"

Source


Translation: "We are a bunch of whacky ass christians who dont want to get sued, so please please please believe what we tell you a giant invisible guy in the sky says instead"


Sigh.....religion is a cancer on humanity.

ONE TIME:

It is not religion's fault.

A fool blame's a thing for a person's or peoples' actions.

reply to post by TarzanBeta


When the people act according to the thing (religion), the great brainwashing is partially to blame. They claimed a failure to adhere to a belief system's tenets is why she was fired.