Discrimination, Advice Needed

[Seavee]

I have not posted on these Forums yet. I read the blog more and post occasionally there. Most of the time I just read. However, today I need advice. There are so many insightful, well-informed people in this online community that I hope a few of you can advise me.

I believe I have been fired from my job due to being an atheist. I don’t know if I can prove it. I really don’t think I have any legal protection from what happened but if I do I want to know about it.

I am/was a high school English teacher at a high school in central Florida. I have been with the school for 3 years. I have had no reprimands of any kind. I have had no disciplinary actions and I have never been on any kind of improvement plan.

I teach both at-risk students and regular classes. My students have consistently scored better on state tests and maintained higher learning gains per year than is typical for these classes.

I am involved in school and community organizations. My students have worked after hours to create a large scale, 2-year project that created an outdoor classroom area and an art and poetry display for our school. This was recorded in the local newspaper. Parents, students and colleagues were all pleased with the outcome. My last yearly evaluation was perfect. I received the highest marks in all categories of evaluation. I have completed the National Board Certification process and I await my results this fall.

My personal record is also pristine. I do not engage in morally irresponsible behavior in any way. I do not have any “black marks” in my background. I have never done anything illegal. I have not even had a speeding ticket.

My relationships with my students are good. I have the expected number of disciplinary issues. That number is well within the average range for my school. I also maintain consistent contact with parents and family members at all time. I make my personal information available to all parents so that they can contact me at any time. I also make a point to contact every parent at least twice during a given term.

I do not outline my professional virtues as brag, but rather an indication that there are no performance-based issues that warrant my dismissal.

Neither is there an economic reason. My administrators stood up in a faculty meeting and announced that no teachers would be loosing their jobs due to budge cuts this year. They used this announcement to explain why teacher planning time was decreasing while class loads increase.

The only remaining likely possibilities are personal. Other teachers were kept on staff that have less effective history and greater difficulties with their occupation. I was let go despite a pristine record and strong performance.

I feel that my school administrators have decided that I am too liberal to remain at their school. I do not think they wanted to risk giving me tenure so they fired me before they had to.

I know that my atheism was common knowledge because it was discussed during lunch in the faculty lounge this past December. The conversation was not heated but people were bothered because I commented that maintaining a secular environment in schools was important because not everyone believed the same things. Maybe I should have just kept my mouth shut, but I naively believed my friends and co-workers would not get that excited about it. It did cause a small stir in the gossip chain for a while.

I also attempted to start a GSA club earlier in the school year. A student came and asked me to do it and I felt honor bound to agree. I knew my administrators wouldn’t like it but I also knew they were obligated to allow it. Ultimately the club fell through because of pressure from the administration. I gave in because I felt that they were correct in stating that the student in question was not responsible enough to handle such a controversial club.

I think the combination of these two things have led my administrators to decide I am not an appropriate fit for their school. I suspect that there is little that can be done. The evidence all seems circumstantial to me. No one ever said “you’re fired because you’re an atheist.” However, I do think that this is what happened.

My administrator withheld letters of recommendation from me while my county was doing the majority of the hiring at other schools. During that time I would have been given priority as an in-county applicant. I was not able to apply because the letters were withheld. Since then I have had one interview which went very well. I was sure I had the job. Then they called in my references and suddenly lost interest. I have not been able to even get an interview at the other high school in my county. I am afraid that I have not only been dismissed but also blacklisted.

I appreciate your time reading this long posting. If you know of any recourse that I may have in this situation I would greatly appreciate the advice.

[Doyle]

Unfortunately, I have no concrete advice, but for what it's worth, you do have my deepest sympathies. My only suggestion would be to talk to a lawyer that might be able to advise you on a wrongful termination suit, but you've probably already thought of that. Good luck

[reedbraden]

My advice: Get out of Florida.

I live in SW VA and I had a very liberal teacher, a former hippy, who helped me start a GSA at my high school. Even though the administration tried to stop the GSA, the teacher sponsor never felt that he job was threatened.

Get out of the deep south. You can't save it from itself.

[JulietEcho]

This is the sort of thing the ACLU cares a lot about, and I can't see why they wouldn't be glad to help you. I would send that exact letter (one quick typo to fix, since you're an English teacher: "to brag" not "as brag") to them, and perhaps to any higher governmental authority that could come down on your former employing school's administration.

I agree that attitudes in Florida might leave you additionally disadvantaged in this situation, but I also think you should make a stand, for your students, for your self-respect and for teachers everywhere who feel too scared to speak up when they see church/state separation violated.

[Seavee]

I have left the south before. I have lived other places. This is not my home town. I am from Montgomery, Alabama. I hate the south but I love it more. Its contradictory but I know no better way to say it.

I will send the letter to the ACLU. I am going online to look for an address now. Maybe they can help. My concern is that I don’t have solid proof. My principal isn’t stupid. She didn’t come out and say anything ever.

I don’t think I can sue for wrongful termination. Florida has very little protection for workers and my contract says they can fire me for any reason up until I have tenure. I should have gotten tenure this year but they fired me instead.

P.S. I’ll fix the error! Thanks.

[deadgoon]

I don't have any advice except to tell you to keep your mouth shut in the future. I'm sure you have figured this one out by now though. I am very careful at work not to talk about religion or sexuality or anything in my personal life. If people try to probe into my personal life I just say, "I don't think this is a work appropriate conversation." Then I walk away.

What really sucks for you is that they are actively trying to sabotage your career. Can you record phone conversations in FL without notifying the other party? If so, perhaps you could have a friend call them up and pretend to be looking for a reference. Maybe you'll catch them in the act.

Call the ACLU and keep us updated on what is going on.

[JM1]

Collect and keep copies of all documents. Get references from friends and co-workers. When showing others your position, don't give them the original documents, just copies.

Next contact the ACLU and also your teachers union. Both should fight for your case.

Keep applying for positions and keep good records.

Appeal your termination if still possible. Sounds like some time has passed. Write directly to your school board.

You may have to un-cloak and use your real name.

It is possible that becuase you were supporting the student who wanted to start a Gay and Lesbian support group they assumed you were gay. This should be irrelevant, but may have influenced their decisions.

You are going to have to figure out if you will go low profile and go begging for what ever job they will let you have, (which it sounds like they won't give you), or fight them head on with a law suit targeted at getting you re-instated or compensated.

Find friends, support and good legal advice. Good luck.

[snafu918]

I do hope that you do something to fight back! I also hope that you keep us updated on your progress. My wife is going to school to be a teacher and as a result we are totally covert about our our atheism due to our fear of similar persecution. Hopefully your story will not serve as a warning but as a message of hope when you finally arrive at the reckoning that is due to you.

[happycynic]

I have a lot of sympathy for you. I'm not exactly closeted in my atheism--i'll mention it if it comes up--but i prefer to keep a low-profile just to avoid a fracas'.

One thing you might have to be careful about is whether they have any incidents where they can claim you were pushing your views on students. class debates, things like that. and with the bias going the way it does, things that would seem innocuous might be used against you, with great effect.

ACLU is a good idea. While i think some of their suits are excessive, this sounds like something entirely justified. I'm not sure if you'll have to pay their lawyer fees though... can't remember if they're non-profit or not.

Some things that might prove useful (in my inept and mostly non-existent legal opinion):

figure out what students, parents, and fellow faculty would support your testimony

get in contact with former co-workers that might be able to give you a heads-up on office gossip

ask the principal head-on why you were fired (if you haven't already)

look into the reasons why you were denied a job at other districts (were they really having budget troubles,etc.)

Check to see if parent or student complaints had anything to do with it

Other than that, i don't know if i can give you any good advice. I hope it goes well for you; my mom's a teacher, and i know how hard the job is.

[Seavee]

I guess I should have kept my mouth shut. I thought I was safe because my performance was so good. They reinstated me for 3 years. That seemed like a good indicator of success.

The thing is, this is a small town. It’s hard to keep things under wraps when your friends all know each other. Even when gossip isn’t malicious, things have a way of moving around. I don’t think I can stand the idea of pretending to be different. I don’t go out of my way to talk about religion but I don’t want to hide either. I imagine everyone here understands that.

I suspect that at least my main administrator thinks I am a lesbian. This is a common rumor among the students. I am not gay. I just don’t date a lot. I also have a coupe of close friends who are known lesbians. People notice and make assumptions. I never correct them simply because I shouldn’t have to. If I were gay I certainly wouldn’t be ashamed of it. I don’t want to give the idea any sort of shameful connotation by rabidly defending myself against silly rumors.

I have done some of the things people suggested. I did contact my union and they said they couldn’t help me. According to them my contract says I can be terminated at any time without reason until I receive tenure. I was under the impression that tenure was automatic after 3 successful years. I know it is the case in the neighboring county because a friend of mine went through it. My union rep says things are different here. I thought about going over her head, but she is in charge of out tri-county area so that would mean appealing all the way to the state level.

I do have good records. I am a meticulous keeper of documentation. I suggest this for all teachers. It saves you grief if someone gets mad. I have 9 letters of recommendations from colleagues and several letters from students and parents as well. I think people would vouch for me if it would help in some way.

I want to fight this but I can’t be unemployed for very long before I will run out of money. I love my home and my friends. I don’t want to be forced to move. I have applied in other districts but there are very few openings. Everyone had budget cuts. Most schools are doing internal transfers. There are some elementary and middle school positions available but that is about it. I am not certified to teach elementary or middle.

I don’t think there were parent complaints. If a parental complain is deemed valid they have to write it up and keep it on file. I have nothing in my file. A parent could have complained off the record but I doubt it. I am pretty popular with students and parents. Complaints happen but not often.

I am very careful about influencing kids. I am sure there are things that could be twisted. There always are, but there is nothing solid. I refuse to discuss my personal beliefs with the kids. They know this. They ask frequently (Which I find weird) but I always tell them that I respect them too much to try and influence what they believe. Then I suggest they talk with parents and other authority figures.

I am hoping for a response to my E-mail to the ACLU. I also sent one to the AA society. I haven’t called in person yet but I will do that today. I will let you all know if I hear anything.

I appreciate having a place to hash this out without people telling me I am crazy. It makes me feel better anyway.

[JulietEcho]

I hope things go well for you, whether it's with the ACLU and other groups or just moving on and finding work you won't hate in our current job market.

As far as I can tell, you should be proud of everything you've done so far. You shouldn't have to defend or outline your sexual orientation, you shouldn't have to lie about your beliefs for the benefit of your co-workers and you are not living in some 1950s version of America where the law wouldn't support your position. This sort of ninja discrimination is abhorrent and hateful, and I hope someone has to answer for it eventually.

[Doyle]

I agree. No one should ever discriminate against ninjas. Ninjas are awesome!

[sexorcista]

Wow - horrible situation to be in Seavee.

...now tell me how great/loving christianity is ?
Grrr...