My Question of the Day for 15 June 2010 – UPDATED
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My Question of the Day: A male teacher at a private, faith-based elementary school–we’ll call him Adam–asks for a meeting with his principal after school. The principal–we’ll call him Mr. Davis–agrees to meet with Adam after the final bell and all the students have safely departed the building. When Adam arrives for the meeting, he finds Mr. Davis in a reasonably good mood, and they chat a bit about Adam’s recent marriage. Mr. Davis comments on how much he enjoyed the exchange of traditional vows and how he had an opportunity to meet Adam’s parents and siblings. After the small talk, the principal asks Adam why he wanted to meet.
Adam tells Mr. Davis that he’d like to take advantage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, so that he can stay home with his wife and their newborn son. Mr. Davis is quiet for a moment and asks if everything is okay with the baby since he was born prematurely. Adam corrects the principal and tells him that his son was not born prematurely. Again, Mr. Davis is quiet for a moment. Adam waits patiently for an answer as he notices Mr. Davis looking at his calendar. Adam assumes that Mr. Davis is trying to determine how long the school will have to be without him if Mr. Davis honors his request to give him the time off.
After about three minutes, Mr. Davis says that he will get back to Adam in a few days. The men shake hands, and Adam leaves the office. Saturday morning Adam receives a letter of termination in the mail. The letter explains that Adam has violated the moral values of the school by conceiving a child out of wedlock.
Is this discrimination? Does Adam have any legal recourse to fight his termination?
My 2 Cents: This is another one of those “ripped from the headlines” questions.
I thought it was interesting that several of you spoke about a morals clause in Adam’s contract when I made no mention of such a clause. I only said that the principal said Adam was fired for violating the moral values of the school.
If, indeed, Adam’s employment contract did contain a morals clause, and he is in violation of that clause, then it is not discrimination, and his termination should be upheld if he intends to fight it.
If, however, Adam’s employment contract did not contain a morals clause, but the principal simply disagreed with what Adam did in his personal life, this is discrimination, and Adam’s termination should not be upheld if he intends to fight it.
Read Teacher fired for premarital sex to see where I got the idea for the question. I changed the “main character” to a man in my question, but read what actually happened to the woman who found herself in this situation.
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Adam can file for retro fmla.. And yes he’s being discriminated against.. that happens a lot to men which is sad.. kids needs their dad and moms equally as much so each parent should have rights and protection for new births.
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LikeDislikeAs to the FMLA part, yes I do think it’s discrimination. But the other part, well if it was in the contract he signed when he got hired, I don’t know that he has much recourse. He should seek legal counsel.
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LikeDislikeMy two cents: Heck, Adam should have thought about that clause before he rolled up in the office asking for time off to be w/ his family. Regardless, (Tomi) of what the FMLA states, Adam violated the moral values of the Faith-Based school by conceiving a child out of wedlock. Period! No case & nothing to discuss, legally. Did I appreciate the way the principal handled the situation? Maybe not, but who cares? Adam should’ve chilled while the getting was good!
No Case & No Job…*Shrug*
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LikeDislikeHonestly, I do not think that this is such a big deal and I respect people’s decisions. However, that being said, this teacher is a teaching at a faith based school where parents trust supervisors and educators to teach their kids the basic math and English skills but also Christian moral code. If the teacher fails to stick to the ethical rules supported by the administration then unfortunately he should not be teaching the children of families who specifically send their kids to these schools and pay good money to avoid this kind of behavior. It’s fine but I’m assuming he would have signed a contract to follow a certain ethical code. If he was teaching at a public institution then I would think being terminated would be inappropriate
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LikeDislikeThis is a tough one. On one hand, the school has a moral clause since it is a faith based school. I don’t believe its discrimination if the employee was advised of the rules and clauses that he had to abide by.
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LikeDislikeWhy has discrimination become such a bad word? People are discriminating by putting their children into a private, faith-based school. They are discerning between the negatives of public school and the positives of a private, faith-based education.
If this teacher was under a contract to abide by certain moral codes, then he is not being discriminated against. No one put a gun to his head when he signed the contract. In conceiving a child out of wedlock, he made a choice to violate the contract he was under, to violate the trust that was placed in him by the faculty, administration, parents , & students. The school has the right to terminate his contract. It’s called a consequence.
Many people, Christians & non-Christians, wrongly quote scripture attributable to not being judgmental. But Paul clearly says that we are to be discerning. We are to call out brothers & sisters about their sin. People are to be removed from places of influence within the church when they are not repentant (do not acknowledge their sin & turn away from it).
I see nothing in this story that leads me to believe that this teacher was repentant. Otherwise, the situation would have been well-known by his superiors well before he requested time off.
Does it suck that this teacher lost his job and has a family to provide for? Sure. But that’s the price of sin.
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LikeDislikeI tend to agree with Anne-Marie. In todays society it is imperative to read the fine print. Terms and conditions are just that and once you have signed, sealed, and delivered said form it is binding. Many contracts seem unfair BUT if so then have a lawyer question the contract before signing. THE BOTTOM LINE IS IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH A CONTRACT do not sign it!
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LikeDislikeThe child wasn’t born out of wedlock, just *conceived* out of wedlock. I’m guessing the school is basing Adam’s termination on some specific morality clause in his employment contract but the reality is that the argument about being a role model is ridiculous. The school kids will never know when his child was conceived.
(By the way, I was just reading the article this morning about the female teacher who is involved in this very situation. She’s fighting it…)
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LikeDislikeThis has nothing to do with discrimination but rather the fact that the school has a moral clause in place, which was likely in the teaching contract signed (agreed upon) by Adam when he was hired. As he had a child out of wedlock he broke that portion of the contract. Legally I don’t believe he has any recourse.
This could very easily become a “we vs them” issue. As Christians we ALL sin and ALL sin is created equal. And we should forgive and accept, it’s not our right to judge. We need to step back from the issue on a Christian perspective and remember that Adam broke a contract.
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LikeDislikeI don’t think that the termination has anything to do with the FMLA. Instead, Adam is a teacher at a faith-based school. If one of the tenets of that faith it to wait until marriage before sex, then Adam is not a role model for the children he teaches.
In a public school setting, then this would be discriminating. In a faith-based setting, this is just making sure that the people who mold the children based on the guidelines of the faith also live it.
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LikeDislikeI believe this is discriminatory as the FMLA – to my knowledge – does not mandate a person be married. Simply put if you become a parent you may take advantage of this act. I know some states practice “At Will” employment and may terminate an employee for any reason leaving the determination of discrimination at the mercy of the court. However, if it were me, I would definitely seek to legal counsel.
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