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A teacher at a Christian school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania says she was fired for supporting her son after he came out of the closet. Details follow.
Sharon White is suing her previous employer, the Covenant Christian Academy, for suspending her son (a student at the school) after he came out as gay, and, ultimately, firing her for being a supportive mother.
Though the CCA refused to budge on allowing White's son, a high school senior, back on to campus as a regular student after coming out, the school claims that it didn't ask her to renounce his "sin."
White's lawsuit claims otherwise.
According to Courthouse News Service:
Throughout the rest of the school year, White says, the school organization "proffered unsolicited opinions" concerning her son's orientation, including the board member's and his wife's comments above.
What claims that the constant criticism and blame gave her adjustment disorder, anxiety and depression. She requested medical leave of absence to treat her disability in January 2010, and says she was encouraged to take a "year to heal," which she calls an attempt to "impose upon plaintiff an involuntary sabbatical for the 2010-2011 academic year."
White says she informed the school in a letter of May 10, 2010, that she was capable of continuing to teach with the option of taking necessary intermittent medical leaves of absence. But when she requested reasonable accommodation, including intermittent medical leaves of absence, White says, she was denied a contract for the next school year.
She says the school told her she was not offered a contract because her May 10 letter allegedly attacked the school's position on homosexual behavior, and called those who held such positions "bigots."
White says this "ostensible basis" for her firing "is wholly without basis in facts and [is] a pretense for intentional discrimination and retaliation."
So, Sharon was basically fired for being a good mom AND a good Christian?
(Source: Courthouse News Service)
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