The "right" way to fire a pregnant teacher

[FakePigtails]

I saw this on facebook today and it doesn't appear to be satire: patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2014/02/how-do-you-fire-a-pregnant-unwed-teacher-from-a-catholic-school-heres-a-suggestion/

(hypocritical) Excerpts:

Third, though she has violated her terms of the contract does not mean we abrogate our responsibility as Catholic Christians. To that end, we are going to pay Mary Jane the severance required by the terms of her contract. But we are also going to go beyond that. We will continue to pay her health care up to the time of her delivery. We will also work to help her find employment, so that she can fulfill her obligations to the life she is bringing into the world. None of this is required of us in our contract with her. But we are doing this, as I indicated, out of Christian charity and out of our support for the most precious gift of all, the gift of life.

...

We want to teach that our mistakes and our sins do not define us. We want to teach mercy.

...

Jesus said, “Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me.†We believe we are teaching what Jesus taught.

Pope Francis has reminded us: we are a church built on the boundless mercy of God, trusting in his generous love—a love that we seek to model through the actions we are taking today.

Because nothing says love like firing a teacher despite that every single teacher is also a sinner, and pretending that a few attempts to not completely screw her over make you a saint. Yep, SO Christ-like right there.

[Peas n carrots]

I hope the teacher was not pregnant through rape...talk about victim shaming. No matter that is a shitty way to treat someone, after all if they are so "pro-life" they would not even consider firing the mother to be.

[FakePigtails]

I hope the teacher was not pregnant through rape...talk about victim shaming. No matter that is a shitty way to treat someone, after all if they are so "pro-life" they would not even consider firing the mother to be.

Yep. I can't even contemplate the thought of putting someone in the position of having to deal with a punishment or else explain that they were raped if that were the case. No, just no.

I thought it was notable that they proposed paying medical expenses up to delivery with no mention of making sure the kid would be covered for a time after. Not that I should be surprised, but still. It's just so transparently shitty and it reinforces the caring about babies until they're actually born stereotype.

[Stephanie66]

They received an anonymous letter about her pregnancy, then fired her. I don't think they paid for her insurance or anything. Just...gone. She had been there for nine years and, according to them, was an excellent teacher.

[Jana814]

They received an anonymous letter about her pregnancy, then fired her. I don't think they paid for her insurance or anything. Just...gone. She had been there for nine years and, according to them, was an excellent teacher.

Maybe I missed it but was she married?

[Childless]

So, what lesson has the rest of the staff learned here. If you do get pregnant out of wedlock, your choices are abort before anyone finds out or loose your only means to afford medical care and food. What a way to promote the pro-life model. I can tell you what I would do. No way would I voluntarily put myself into a position of expecting a child without the means to raise the child or receive the necessary prenatal medical care. I'd abort before anyone knew about it and try to salvage my career and my life.

Christians. The more they try and force their morals on others the more they drive others into making the choices they abhor. When will they learn?

[16strong]

Soooo...basically, instead of using this as an opportunity to show their Christ-like behavior, they fired her and left her without a way to support herself and her child? I am **SO** tired of "Christians" that profess to behave as Christ did, but when the time comes to forgive someone and pick them up off the floor, they'd rather just save face and make themselves look good by kicking the person while they're down. I want to scream and curse into my pillow right now.

[Hane]

Yet there are possibly more than a few faculty members there whose sexual indiscretions are flying under the radar--extramarital affairs, sex not resulting in pregnancy, etc. Way to slut-shame.

[Talitha Cumi]

Wait, hang on. Can they even do that legally? I'm pretty sure pregnancy counts as a disability under the ADA, and that even applies to private employers. They could have one hell of a lawsuit on their hands.

[NotALoserLikeYou]

Wait, hang on. Can they even do that legally? I'm pretty sure pregnancy counts as a disability under the ADA, and that even applies to private employers. They could have one hell of a lawsuit on their hands.

She probably signed some sort of morals agreement. You can't live with a partner or be gay etc etc. but I don't know the legality of it.

[GeoBQn]

So, what lesson has the rest of the staff learned here. If you do get pregnant out of wedlock, your choices are abort before anyone finds out or loose your only means to afford medical care and food. What a way to promote the pro-life model.

It does seem to encourage secret abortions. I highly doubt that their health plan covers birth control.

I remember another story about a private Christian school that fired a teacher for getting pregnant out of wedlock. In that case, "out of wedlock" meant with her fiancé, two weeks before their planned wedding.

[Stephanie66]

Wait, hang on. Can they even do that legally? I'm pretty sure pregnancy counts as a disability under the ADA, and that even applies to private employers. They could have one hell of a lawsuit on their hands.

She signed a morals clause on her contract. And no, she wasn't married and that was the issue.

[docmom]

So, if Mary had been a teacher at this Catholic school, she'd have been out on her ear? :?

[fundielicious]

That's kinda what happened in my Christian high school. In sophomore year, my lab partner got pregnant, and as soon as the school found out, she was taken out of the general school population and left to do her work in the library. She was still charged the full tuition amount, but was not given the same access to teachers and school amenities as the the other students. However, if she was suddenly not pregnant, she would have been able to rejoin the school population without any problem.

[MonkeyMomma]

So, if Mary had been a teacher at this Catholic school, she'd have been out on her ear? :?

:clap: Bingo. The good deacon appears to have set himself up as holier than the Virgin Mother herself!

[louisa05]

This blog post is not what happened. This writer is suggesting a way for the morals clause in the contract to be upheld while providing for the woman and her baby at least for a time. It is a much better alternative than what religious schools currently do.

This happened at the Catholic school I taught at. The young teacher was fired on the spot when she revealed her pregnancy to administrators. Her insurance was canceled and her livelihood taken away. She ended up moving in with her parents and having to get on Medicaid. A lot of us were disgusted with how it was handled. Of course, being under contract ourselves with a powerless union, there was nothing we could do. While I still would have been upset by it, I would have been much less disgusted had this writer's suggestion been the policy--with her contract paid out in full (that would be a salary and insurance until the following August--and she was fired on October at about 3.5 mths pregnant).

This is a difficult situation in a religious school. Private schools are often beholden to the whims and ideals of parents and donors who pay the bills. Keeping this teacher at the school I taught at would have resulted in students in her elementary classroom being pulled (several parents immediately said they would not let their young kids remain under her---and we can make 500 arguments about why it would not hurt them, but these people would not have cared about any of that). If you lose students or donors over an issue like that, it is a blow to often fragile budgets. I'm not justifying it, I'm simply telling you that the reality is that these admins are often not able to think of mercy, grace, or human decency because the pressure on them is about potential red ink more than anything else. Where I taught, the public schools were good and actually much stronger in some areas (especially fine arts and advanced coursework for high school). They were a perfectly viable alternative and the nearest Metro area also had numerous Catholic schools in easy driving distance with generous financial aid. We all know that when decisions are about money, they are not always good or fair decisions.

And the hypocrisy is mind-blowing in terms of this particular school. They later re-hired a teacher who had her first child three months before her wedding during the year she did not work there (and considering that said wedding was in September after she was re-hired they could not claim no one in the school community knew--but the pretty wedding fixed it and she taught high school where parents weren't as sensitive to the issue) . They employed a teacher who got married at a drive in wedding chapel in Vegas in direct violation of the clause in the contract that required Catholic teachers to marry within the rules of the church. One male teacher openly explained to high school students that since unmarried teachers could be fired for living with a significant other, he and his fiancee rented a studio apartment across the hall to use as her official address so the school wouldn't catch the Of course, those two were also coaches who brought home championships for the high school and those parents, as a whole, cared more about their kids getting medals at State than any morals clause. I doubt that any of that kind of hypocrisy is unique to them.

[nolongerIFBx]

They received an anonymous letter about her pregnancy, then fired her. I don't think they paid for her insurance or anything. Just...gone. She had been there for nine years and, according to them, was an excellent teacher.

We will continue to pay her health care up to the time of her delivery. We will also work to help her find employment, so that she can fulfill her obligations to the life she is bringing into the world.

[FakePigtails]

The link in the OP is a guy's hypothetical proposal for being less shitty to the fired teacher (that I think is still really shitty).

[louisa05]

The patheos blogger wrote a fictional alternative to the current status quo in religious schools of simply throwing out an unmarried pregnant teacher and wishing her good luck. What he wrote is not what happened.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

It does seem to encourage secret abortions. I highly doubt that their health plan covers birth control.

I remember another story about a private Christian school that fired a teacher for getting pregnant out of wedlock. In that case, "out of wedlock" meant with her fiancé, two weeks before their planned wedding.

How would they know if it was 2 weeks? I mean 2 weeks is the range of error. And, if anyone had done the math, they would have gotten close enough to the wedding to assume it happened that night.

[DuggarsTheEndIsNear]

That's kinda what happened in my Christian high school. In sophomore year, my lab partner got pregnant, and as soon as the school found out, she was taken out of the general school population and left to do her work in the library. She was still charged the full tuition amount, but was not given the same access to teachers and school amenities as the the other students. However, if she was suddenly not pregnant, she would have been able to rejoin the school population without any problem.

My school had a rule that you could be pregnant and attended school until you showed. Then you were expelled. It was in the contract everyone's parents signed.

One of my friends graduated pregnant. She was so lucky cause within a week or two of graduation, her bump showed. Any sooner, and she wouldn't have been allowed to walk at graduation.

[Stephanie66]

This is so ridiculous. It's 2014 for Pete's sake. I think I like the movie "Saved" more and more. At least the school realized she was doing the "right thing" and let her continue her pregnancy and school.

I wonder how many abortions occur because of these types of policies?