Teacher Claims She Was Fired For Getting Pregnant

In 2009, a recently married fourth-grade teacher at Southland Christian School informed her bosses she was pregnant and would need to take maternity leave. During the conversation, Jaretta Hamilton casually revealed to the administrators that she’d conceived the child three weeks before her wedding date. She was fired by the end of the week, and her superior John Ennis reportedly told her, “there are consequences for disobeying the word of God.”

Technically, there’s nothing wrong with a private school firing a teacher for moral reasons; however, federal law prohibits women from being discriminated against due to pregnancy. In 2010, Hamilton filed a lawsuit claiming she was given the heave-ho for getting knocked-up, but a judge dismissed the case prior to trial because her attorney failed to offer evidence the termination wasn’t anything more than a morality judgment.

Two years later however, an appeals panel has found the exact opposite. According to The Chicago Tribune, Hamilton will get her trial because the judges found evidence that the administrators may have been more worried about finding a fill-in for their teacher than condemning her actions.

I’m not saying it’s right for a woman to get fired for having sex with her fiancé weeks before their wedding, but this is the type of thing you get when you work for a religious school. Hamilton is asking for lost wages and restitution for her emotional distress. We’ll see what jurors think when the lawsuit moves forward later this year.