Conscience on file

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It:

The religious rights of teachers.

When the Supreme Court ruled last year in the Mahmoud vs. Taylor case, it gave parents the right to opt their children out of LGBT-related curriculum in schools. But what about the teacher who objects? What protections are in place?

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Eric Rivera declined to read two books to first graders that feature a same-sex couple the book claims are married to each other. Rivera says he asked for a religious accommodation. Instead, he was removed from his classroom at KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary School in Nashville.

Rivera explains his objection:

RIVERA: Well, my beliefs are that marriage and family are God-given institutions. And because I'm a Bible-believing Christian and because it's between a man and a woman, seeing that marriage in the book has two dads and a daughter, it does not coincide with my religious beliefs.

BROWN: Rivera tried resolving the issue with the school while standing by his own beliefs. He set up a meeting with an assistant principal.

RIVERA: We discussed a solution and the solution was to have the co-teacher read the book when the lesson was going to be taught. And that was executed the following day, everyone was in agreement that that was going to happen and it worked out smoothly. But then the following day I was brought to the principal's office with a final warning and my job was threatened …

Even though Rivera’s job performance to that point had been good, with no prior discipline.

Rivera explained that the principal of the school told him he had to “maintain fidelity” to the school’s worldview. If he couldn’t, then his job was at risk.

REICHARD: So he contacted lawyers at First Liberty Institute for help. They sent a demand letter to the school. 

Senior Counsel Cliff Martin explains that Rivera’s requests are protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights act:

MARTIN: Which is a federal law prohibiting discrimination based on religion and also requiring employers to provide accommodation for religious beliefs and practices, unless doing so would cause an undue hardship. 

Here, it is obvious that, you know, an accommodation could have easily been provided and actually was arranged for, and yet the principal retaliated against Mr. Rivera and clearly discriminated against him based on his religious belief in threatening to terminate him if he did not practice in line with the school's values and beliefs rather than his own. And given that an accommodation should have been easily reached, there was no justification for the school district discriminating against him for his religious faith.

I did contact the school for its response but heard nothing back in time for this story. (Now, if someone from the school does agree to talk, then I’ll share that with you.)

Meantime, the Supreme Court recently clarified that employers have to show a substantial increase in cost to accommodate in order to claim undue hardship. But here, Martin says there’s no evidence of that. So he’s asking the school to think again:

MARTIN: We're asking for a commitment that the district will not discriminate further against religious employees. We're also asking for the district to remove that final warning letter that, you know, under the specific language of the warning letter, it was placed in his personnel file. So we're demanding that that be removed and that his name be cleared. And we also added that the district should review its policies with respect to notification of parents regarding the materials that are in their curriculum, because under Tennessee law there may be parental rights implicated in their decision.

BROWN: Lawyers for Rivera have asked for a response from the school by tomorrow. 

At the moment, Rivera is still employed by the school, but is being shuttled to different departments. He hopes the case sends a message to other teachers that they have rights under federal law.

RIVERA: Well, I hope other educators may take this as a wake up call. And also just to embolden them to step up against coercion against them … the Civil Rights Act of 1964 gives them religious freedoms, religious liberties. But you know, God is powerful and He tells us to live day by day and trust in Him, so that’s what I’m leaning on for my strength.

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