WaPo has a report on what appears to be dubious behavior by a religious school:
… Kristen Biel sued St. James School in Torrance [St. James Catholic School v. Biel]. She said her contract was not renewed in 2014 after she told school officials that she was being treated for breast cancer. Biel sued under the Americans With Disabilities Act, and her suit is being pursued by her husband.
If this is, indeed, how it played out, I think Biel, now passed away, and her husband should have passed the word through the community of the school and the entire parental group should have come down hard on the school admin.
As in, We’re walkin’ if you did this unless you clean up your act now.
The other suit mentioned in the article, Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, probably merits a similar response.
In general, in religious schools which may be exempt from government regulations which generally apply to schools, I think parents, who ultimately control the fate of such services, need to step up and install mechanisms which permit proper ethical regulation of these institution. As an example related to these cases, each dismissal or failure to renew a contract must have an explicit reason for that renewal.
I know that some hierarchies will resist, but it’s the parents who hold the hammer – if they will only realize it.
