“I looked it up and thought, ‘They can’t do this,’ ” Samford told the Dallas station of the action by Heritage Christian Academy, where she’d coached almost three years and recently began teaching science.
Samford, 29, was in her third year as a volleyball coach at Heritage Christian Academy in Rockwall, Tex., and her first year as a middle school science teacher when she discovered she was pregnant in the fall of 2011.
She and her fiance had been planning to get married at the end of the summer, but a series of events had delayed the wedding.
Samford said she never dreamed she would be fired for her pregnancy and went into her conversations with the school thinking their biggest concern would be her missing part of the basketball season since she was supposed to coach.
When she got pregnant, the school fired her because she wasn't married, WFAA says. The school says it has the right to do that. The headmaster said it didn't look good to have an unwed pregnant teacher, 'she wont be a role model' he added.
Since the academy is a private, religious campus, its headmaster, Dr. Ron Taylor, told the station it can impose standards of conduct.
“The Supreme Court … has ruled 9-to-0 that a Christian school does have that right, because this is a ministry,” WFAA quotes Taylor as saying.
3 comments:
Sadly, the school does have the right to fire her. Whether they should have exercised the right, especially in light of her having a fiance, is another question.
I agree with you. They had the right to fire her but should have reconsidered their decision, especially after she offered to get married. Oh well.
Maybe she can re-apply after she does get married. I mean it's like churches marrying an obviously-pregnant bride. It just doesn't portray the right picture.
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