Posted on 12/07/2005 5:03:35 PM PST by Esther Ruth
Catholic Teacher Single, Pregnant -- and Now Unemployed Diocese Disputes Lawsuit Charging It With 'Pregnancy Discrimination'
By Jim Brown and Jody Brown December 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Catholic school teacher in New York who was fired for becoming pregnant while unmarried is contesting her termination.
St. Rose of Lima School in Queens recently fired pre-kindergarten teacher Michelle McCusker upon learning she had engaged in non-marital sex. With help from the New York Civil Liberties Union, McCusker has filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She informed the school of her condition one month after this school year began, and two days later was told she was being terminated at the end of October.
McCusker tells the NYCLU she has been "devastated" by the school's action. "This was my first teaching position and I was excited and looking forward to the school year with my young students," she says in a press release. "I don't understand how a religion that prides itself on being forgiving could terminate me because I am unmarried and choose to have a baby." McCusker was hired under a one-year contract to begin teaching in September 2005.
Frank DeRosa, a spokesman for the Brooklyn Diocese, which governs the school, explains the decision to fire the unmarried woman. McCusker, he says, violated standards in the school's personnel handbook. According to the spokesman, that handbook "gives an outline of what is expected in terms of promoting gospel values and the Christian tradition as something to be taught but also as a reality to be lived." He adds that the newly hired teacher signed a release form indicating she had received the handbook.
Evidently that is not the issue, according to the NYCLU, which contends the school is engaging in "pregnancy discrimination." The acting director of the legal group's Reproductive Rights Project says the school fired McCusker "ostensibly for engaging in non-marital sex, but neither the school nor the Diocese ... enforces this policy against men." The NYCLU spokesperson asserts that applying different policies to men and women employees is "classic sex discrimination."
But DeRosa says that is not true. "We would not discriminate in any instance, whether it's a male or a female, if there's a violation of the agreement to uphold by word and action, in a sense, the gospel values in our tradition," he explains.
DeRosa says in the light of the McCusker case, the vicar for education in the Brooklyn Diocese has suggested amending the personnel handbook to provide alternatives to employment termination for similar situations in the future.
Let the immaculate conception jokes begin...
According to the spokesman, that handbook "gives an outline of what is expected in terms of promoting gospel values and the Christian tradition as something to be taught but also as a reality to be lived." He adds that the newly hired teacher signed a release form indicating she had received the handbook.
DeRosa says in the light of the McCusker case, the vicar for education in the Brooklyn Diocese has suggested amending the personnel handbook to provide ALTERNATIVES to employment termination for similar situations in the future.
I believe in the Catholic faith, forgiveness is based on acknowledging sin and asking for forgiveness.
I also believe this woman has done neither, instead going directly to GO and demanding $200, so to speak.
Regardless of her personal state, her ability to teach children and serve as an example of Catholic moral behavior is obviously compromised. But the good news is, there are many many jobs for Pre-K teachers in public and secular private schools where morality is not a requirement for employment.
My wife teaches at a Catholic High School. The teachers there are expected to espouse Catholic values. Unwed motherhood is not among them. PERIOD. It's unfortunate that this woman lost her job but what kind of example does it set to the children when the teachers are expected to teach the children that pre-marital sex is a sin and here she is unwed and pregnant? It's hypocrasy.
"Let the immaculate conception jokes begin..."
Apparently, the Virgin Mary would've had trouble getting a teaching gig at this school.
She could have gotten an abortion and nobody would have been the wiser. That is a worse sin than little kids seeing their unmarried teacher pregnant which does probably set a bad example.
The male teacher in the next room could have gotten her pregnant, and his job is not in jeopardy.
The bottom line is that rules are rules, and private schools are within their right to demand compliance with the terms of the contract. I uphold their right because worse things than an unmarried, pregnant teacher could be forced on religious schools.
A compassionate solution might be putting her on paid leave until she has the baby so her insurance will pay for the birth and let her have her job back when she "looks right" again.
I hope she has some friends who will help her through this difficult period and she finds other employment where she can make a good living to support her baby and won't be ostracized.
"She might have gotten the job at the behest of the ACLU just so they could make a big stink about this."
Seeing the ACLU under every bed would keep me up at night.
Repenting. The repentance process consists of feeling sincere regret or sorrow for doing wrong, confessing the sin, asking for forgiveness, making restitution for any damage done, and promising not to repeat the sin.
Restitution, in this case, would be quitting her job. Then she can be forgiven.
Perhaps she could have gotten an abortion, but if the school found out about it, they would have been right to terminate her for violating the schools' standards by that act.
If the male teacher next door impregnated her, and the school found out, he would have been terminated too.
It's not a matter of "looking right" it's a matter of morals. I'm glad she chose to carry this baby as opposed to murdering it, but it's not the pregnancy, per se that got her fired, it's her decision to engage in premarital sex. The pregnancy is just the concrete evidence of that immoral act.
If I steal a pack of gum at 7-11 but don't get caught, aren't I still a thief?
"I don't understand how a religion that prides itself on being forgiving could terminate me because I am unmarried and choose to have a baby."
I don't pay $3500 per child to have my kids taught by a slut. If one shows up knocked up at our school she damn well better get fired IMMEDIATELY, not 2 days later. And then she turns to the ACLU, lousy liberal. Who ever hired her should also be let go.
"She could have gotten an abortion and nobody would have been the wiser."
She could have stayed off her back and not had the problem. Or maybe get married and THEN have a child.
The Mother of God did not engage in sexual activity before marriage. Duh.
***"I don't understand how a religion that prides itself on being forgiving could terminate me because I am unmarried and choose to have a baby."***
How can a religious school that teaches abstinence and adultery is a sin allow a teacher to teach school when she got herself knocked up doing exactly the opposite of what the school teaches. Duhh!!!
Paranoid can be taken as derisive, to I avoid it. Seeing malevolence behind such things as pregnancy is a mindset needing a name, though, don't you think? Given the load childbirth places on a single woman, I doubt she would go into it as a means of testing her job security.
I lost all sympathy when she made that statement. She is deliberately being combative and money grubbing. Of course the Anti-Christ Lucifer's Union would jump in. I hope that lousy amatuer is enjoying his time in hell with all the other amatuers trying to dethrone God.
I'd suggest a re-reading of the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke.
O Kaaaayyy ... I was going to, now I won't.
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