Unmarried Catholic school teacher, fired after pregnancy, will pursue legal action [CC]

[Pax2u]

That was my first thought. First Catholic priority has always got to giving life every possible chance to grow, even when the conditions are less than ideal.

Yes, she is not being a good role model for not ensuring that her child has a legitimate father, but it would be far worse to punish the child by taking away the livelihood of the only parent.

Um…she’s NOT the only parent.

 

[WildCatholic]

I wonder how many other teachers at that school should be fired for not living a “catholic lifestyle?” But, lucky for them, they get to hide their sins. This woman does the right thing after doing the wrong thing and she loses her job and her income.

I know. I mean how many teachers probably look at porn or have secret affairs or do all this other ****. I think the school shouldn’t have fired her unless she aborted the baby or something. Also more info is needed. Was this a true accident or was it with her boyfriend she could hopefully marry?

 

[DAML72]

No…

Good for her for choosing life instead of murdering the baby.
Good on the school for firing her.

And how is she supposed to now care for the child? How will she pay for her COBRA health insurance? It’s this kind of hypocrisy and lack of compassion that fuels the pro-choice movement. Not to mention she’ll probably leave the church.

 

[Pax2u]

And how is she supposed to now care for the child? How will she pay for her COBRA health insurance? It’s this kind of hypocrisy and lack of compassion that fuels the pro-choice movement. Not to mention she’ll probably leave the church.

Do you know if the district provided her with any kind of severance package…perhaps is covering her insurance? We have no way of knowing what was given to her. She will get unemployment insurance until she finds another job. With a college degree, I’m sure she will be able to find other work.

 

[Pax2u]

Do you know if the district provided her with any kind of severance package…perhaps is covering her insurance? We have no way of knowing what was given to her. She will get unemployment insurance until she finds another job. With a college degree, I’m sure she will be able to find other work.

Also…the baby does have a father, who should be paying child support if he is not going to be marrying this young woman.

And yes, perhaps she will be angry and leave the Church. Many people do when they have made/are making choices that are against Church teaching. Thankfully, many of those eventually grow older and wiser, and come back. If she does indeed leave, hopefully she will come back somewhere down the road.

 

[GraceSofia]

The OP link says, “Shaela Evenson “made a willful decision to violate the terms of her contract,” which requires her to follow Catholic teachings in both her personal and professional life…”

She and her lesbian partner decided to have a baby together. I don’t see how the school could do otherwise. Another reason why Catholic schools should only employ Catholic teachers. Sounds like the school knew she was in a homosexual living arrangement, although it is not completely clear. If they knew, they should have fired her earlier.

Butte Catholic teacher fired for unwed pregnancy has baby boy

Butler said that case made clear that an employer, even if it is a religious institution, cannot require an employee to sign a contract giving up certain civil rights, which includes the right of a woman to bear children.

The district has said it fired Evenson for violating the terms of her contract, which required her to practice the tenets of the Catholic faith inside and outside the classroom.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2589899/Fired-Catholic-school-teacher-gives-birth-son.html

‘They told her she was fired for being pregnant and unmarried,’ Butler said. ‘Nobody was hiding anything. (Shaela) never denied the fact that she’s in a relationship with Marilyn.’

 

[Joie_de_Vivre]

The OP link says, “Shaela Evenson “made a willful decision to violate the terms of her contract,” which requires her to follow Catholic teachings in both her personal and professional life…”

She and her lesbian partner decided to have a baby together. I don’t see how the school could do otherwise. Another reason why Catholic schools should only employ Catholic teachers. Sounds like the school knew she was in a homosexual living arrangement, although it is not completely clear. If they knew, they should have fired her earlier.

Butte Catholic teacher fired for unwed pregnancy has baby boy

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2589899/Fired-Catholic-school-teacher-gives-birth-son.html

Since she has a lesbian partner I have basically no sympathy because in that case it takes a very deliberate action to get pregnant.

 

[Nopales1234]

The OP link says, “Shaela Evenson “made a willful decision to violate the terms of her contract,” which requires her to follow Catholic teachings in both her personal and professional life…”

She and her lesbian partner decided to have a baby together. I don’t see how the school could do otherwise. Another reason why Catholic schools should only employ Catholic teachers. Sounds like the school knew she was in a homosexual living arrangement, although it is not completely clear. If they knew, they should have fired her earlier.

Butte Catholic teacher fired for unwed pregnancy has baby boy

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2589899/Fired-Catholic-school-teacher-gives-birth-son.html

Qell that does change things a bit. I am not at all for firing a teacher who becomes pregnant when its unplanned. Stuff happens in the heat of the moment, and even the best can fall to temptation. But this?

There’s only two ways a lesbian can get pregnant. Either she has IVF which involves killing embryos and wasting a lot of money, or she aquires a man through friendship or more often money, and has sex with him.

I still think something should be done to help the poor kid, since its not his/her fault, but yeah…

Why did they hire a lesbian in the first place? Did they not see that migh cause issues down the road?

 

[Elizium23]

Why did they hire a lesbian in the first place? Did they not see that migh cause issues down the road?

Because refusing to hire her based on her sexual orientation alone would be unjust discrimination.

 

[Nopales1234]

Gah that is so screwy. And if the school has morality as a part on their contract, it should have been able to say no to a SSA person who is engaging in a sexual relationship before all of this mess occurred, since he was already violating the contract. Should have… Gah.

This would be like me getting up in arms that the local Baptist school wouldn’t hire me because I refuse to quit being Catholic.

 

[Rence]

Good for her for choosing life instead of murdering the baby.

Bad on the school for firing her.

Very bad on the school for firing her, and very contrary to pro-life efforts. Talking out of both sides of one’s mouth is hardly going to be successful. You can’t say “oh, babies are a blessing”, and “learn from your mistakes”, and “go and sin no more”, and “there is no reason for abortion”, etc etc etc ad nauseum. And then fire someone essentially for making a mistake. No one is without sin, including those who fired her. What example did they give to the students? What do you think will happen when someone gets pregnant out of wedlock and remembers what happened to her?

I hope she gets a nice healthy settlement and her job back. That “morality clause” conflicts with federal law anywa, and other Catholic schools have lost in similar cases, so she has a good chance to win.

However, what about their (those who fired her) morality agreement? How was it moral to fire someone who is pregnant knowing that you can’t just sew a red scarlet “A” on her chest and parade her through the streets anymore. No, today, they can just get an abortion. Don’t tell me that they couldn’t have admonished her for the sin but moved forward with dignity because they could have, which was the Catholic thing to do. They chose not to.

 

[Rence]

Because refusing to hire her based on her sexual orientation alone would be unjust discrimination.

Uhm, then DON’T. What person with half a brain would turn down a job applicant and actually tell them it was because of their sexual orientation? What ever happened to just telling them they decided on a different candidate and they would keep his/her application on file? There are many reasons why one candidate is preferable to another. But there’s no sense in telling them every single detail unless you think it’s going to help them. Point is to treat everyone the same.

 

[Elizium23]

Very bad on the school for firing her, and very contrary to pro-life efforts. Talking out of both sides of one’s mouth is hardly going to be successful. You can’t say “oh, babies are a blessing”, and “learn from your mistakes”, and “go and sin no more”, and “there is no reason for abortion”, etc etc etc ad nauseum. And then fire someone essentially for making a mistake. No one is without sin, including those who fired her. What example did they give to the students? What do you think will happen when someone gets pregnant out of wedlock and remembers what happened to her?

I hope she gets a nice healthy settlement and her job back. That “morality clause” conflicts with federal law anywa, and other Catholic schools have lost in similar cases, so she has a good chance to win.

However, what about their (those who fired her) morality agreement? How was it moral to fire someone who is pregnant knowing that you can’t just sew a red scarlet “A” on her chest and parade her through the streets anymore. No, today, they can just get an abortion. Don’t tell me that they couldn’t have admonished her for the sin but moved forward with dignity because they could have, which was the Catholic thing to do. They chose not to.

Since it has now surfaced that she is a lesbian, comes the question about how she conceived the child. If it was through IVF then she is not only guilty of that sin, but also complicit in the abortion of embryos not implanted. IVF and surrogacy are not “pro-life”.

 

[DAML72]

Do you know if the district provided her with any kind of severance package…perhaps is covering her insurance? We have no way of knowing what was given to her. She will get unemployment insurance until she finds another job. With a college degree, I’m sure she will be able to find other work.

I can tell by your lack of empathy or understanding for this woman’s situation that you have been very blessed in your life. I’m happy for you.

 

[Pax2u]

I can tell by your lack of empathy or understanding for this woman’s situation that you have been very blessed in your life. I’m happy for you.

I have been very blessed. I also have made mistakes in my life, paid consequences for them, and learned lessons.

 

[mtbender]

How is it immoral to fire someone for violating the terms of their employment??? The one who is responsible for placing an hardship on this mother and child is the one who knowingly violated the contract - despite the possible ramifications.

 

[Sarabande]

I’ve spoken with a couple of my teacher friends about this and they made a point that even public school teachers where we are have to sign a similar kind of contract as they are expected to set an example for the students they are teaching. Perhaps they don’t have clauses as to a teacher getting pregnant out of wedlock, but if they break their contract, they risk being let go.

I think as more has come out about this particular story, now knowing that the teacher is in a same-sex relationship and has not gotten pregnant the “old-fashioned way”, this also might have a lot to do with her being let go and much less about the fact that she was pregnant.

 

[HappyCatholic01]

I know. I mean how many teachers probably look at porn or have secret affairs or do all this other ****. I think the school shouldn’t have fired her unless she aborted the baby or something. Also more info is needed. Was this a true accident or was it with her boyfriend she could hopefully marry?

Is the school justified in firing teachers who in firing teachers publically engage in illicit affairs, or make it public they look at porn Even if they repent? One could argue a person who looks at porn on school computers should be fired, but one can easily argue if they are remorseful, they should be given mercy and help for the mistake.

Do we even know if the woman is contrite?

In what cases IS it okay for the school to act in what they perceive to be the best interests of the students? When is firing permissible? Whatever your answer is, it will always be arbitrary and debatable by others unless you have some sort of codified contract.

When is firing justified, and why is that answer just as arbitrary as some perceive this firing?

 

[GraceSofia]

Do we even know if the woman is contrite?

Contrite? Would a contrite person sue the school?

We know that she is not Catholic, that she is a lesbian, that she is in a same-sex union with her lesbian lover. The early news stories on this omitted mentioning that. We know that this was not a crisis pregnancy but a planned manufacturing of a baby that will grow up without a father.

The Diocese of Helena was right to fire Shaela Evenson

I have been critical of schools firing unmarried women who become pregnant in the natural way. Sure, it’s a grave sin to engage in fornication, and an unrepentant fornicator–male or female–would clearly be violating a contract like the one described. But pregnancy by itself isn’t evidence of unrepentant and habitual fornication. More discretion, more discernment, and more mercy to a sorrowful single mother facing a crisis pregnancy might be needed in individual cases.

But it is profoundly evil to manufacture a baby in such a way that he is deprived of his rightful relationship with his father, and this would be true if we were talking about heterosexual married teachers using IVF or situations like this one involving lesbians. Granted, the article doesn’t give much info about whether Evanson used IVF or a turkey baster or some other method to get pregnant, but one thing is clear: the child is hers and that of some unknown man who is being denied his right to natural fatherhood. Tobin is neither the child’s father nor his mother, and it is evil to pretend otherwise for the sake of political correctness.

 

[Trader]

Very bad on the school for firing her, and very contrary to pro-life efforts. Talking out of both sides of one’s mouth is hardly going to be successful. You can’t say “oh, babies are a blessing”, and “learn from your mistakes”, and “go and sin no more”, and “there is no reason for abortion”, etc etc etc ad nauseum. And then fire someone essentially for making a mistake. No one is without sin, including those who fired her. What example did they give to the students? What do you think will happen when someone gets pregnant out of wedlock and remembers what happened to her?

I hope she gets a nice healthy settlement and her job back. That “morality clause” conflicts with federal law anywa, and other Catholic schools have lost in similar cases, so she has a good chance to win.

Yes, every baby is a great blessing. Every baby is so precious that he or she deserves both a mother and a father. What the teacher did was to intentionally deny her child the basic human right to a father, even after signing a contract that she would not do something so contrary to Catholic teaching.

There is no way a person who does this should be in a position to influence children whose parents have sacrificed to send them to a Catholic school. Keeping her on staff would violate the fundamental reason for having Catholic schools.

As to others who talk about accidental pregnancies for single women, there is no such thing. The intention follows from the act. Anyone old enough to earn a college degree and teacher certification knows that sexual intercourse is the way babies are conceived. In Christian teaching that was universal until 1930, procreation is one of two essential goods in the marital act.