November 21, 2005
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
media@aclu.org
NEW YORK -- The New York Civil Liberties Union today charged a
private Catholic school with discriminating against an unmarried Catholic
schoolteacher by firing her because she became pregnant.
Michelle McCusker’s employment was terminated even as school
officials praised her teaching ability and her “high degree of professionalism.”
The NYCLU’s Reproductive Rights Project has filed a complaint on McCusker’s
behalf with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC).
“Michelle McCusker was fired because she chose to have a
child,” said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU. “This is
blatant pregnancy discrimination, which is both wrong and illegal. The NYCLU
believes that all women like Ms. McCusker should have the right to choose to
bring their pregnancies to term without being fired for
it.”
McCusker was hired to teach pre-kindergartners at the St. Rose
of Lima School in Queens in September 2005. Her teaching contract was to last
for one year. A month after school began, McCusker, who is single,
informed the school’s principal that she was pregnant and planned to have the
child. Two days later, the principal told McCusker that she was being
terminated because she violated the school’s religious principles by becoming
pregnant while unmarried. The school principal said she could work only
until the end of October.
After the NYCLU wrote the school’s
principal on McCusker’s behalf, urging her reinstatement, the school moved up
the termination by a week and rescinded permission for McCusker to say good-bye
to her students.
“I have been devastated over this incident,” said
Michelle McCusker. “This was my first teaching position and I was excited and
looking forward to the school year with my young students. I don’t
understand how a religion that prides itself on being forgiving could terminate
me because I am unmarried and choose to have a baby.”
The NYCLU
complaint charges that the school’s decision to fire McCusker was intentional
and unlawful discrimination based on her gender and pregnancy. The school
enforced its policy of prohibiting sex outside of marriage only after learning
that McCusker was pregnant. Because only women can become pregnant, the
school enforced the policy in a way that has a disproportionate impact on women
and therefore is illegal, the NYCLU said in legal
papers.
“The school fired Ms.
McCusker ostensibly for engaging in non-marital sex, but neither the school nor
the Diocese that runs the school enforces this policy against men,” said Anna
Schissel, Acting Director of NYCLU’s Reproductive Rights Project.
“Applying different policies to men and women employees is classic sex
discrimination.”
McCusker’s case is similar to a complaint filed by
the NYCLU in 2003 on behalf of the director of an after-school program employed
by a religious charity. When the unmarried program director became
pregnant, the charity demoted her to a position that involved no student
contact. The NYCLU's Reproductive Rights Project filed an EEOC complaint against
the charity alleging sex and pregnancy discrimination. The EEOC found that
the religious charity violated federal anti-discrimination laws by demoting the
teacher because of her pregnancy. The NYCLU secured a favorable settlement
that included the adoption by the charity of an employment policy that prohibits
discrimination on the basis of marital status or pregnancy.
“The
federal law against pregnancy discrimination was passed in 1978,” said ACLU
Reproductive Rights Project staff attorney Cassandra Stubbs. “Ms. McCusker’s
case, unfortunately, demonstrates the gap between the promise of the law and
what is happening in the workplace today. After more than 25 years there
is still much work to be done to ensure that women who decide to become pregnant
and have children can go to work in an environment free of
discrimination.”
In addition to losing her job
while pregnant, McCusker is facing difficulties finding full-time employment, as
the school year has begun and most institutions are no longer hiring, Stubbs
noted.
The NYCLU is asking the school to adopt a non-discrimination policy similar
to the policy adopted in the 2003 case.
