JW Teacher Sues School District For Being Fired Over Valentine's Day

[admin]

A former public elementary school teacher who is a Jehovah’s Witness has filed a lawsuit against the suburban Detroit school district where she used to work because, she claims, school officials ordered her to organize a classroom Valentine’s Day party and then sacked her because she refused.

People who belong to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a millenarian Christian sect, do not celebrate Valentine’s Day. Thus, the teacher, Yvonne Lemmons, is suing for religious discrimination reports Michigan Live.

The defendant in the lawsuit is the Southfield Public School District in Southfield, Mich.

Lemmons, 56, says in her lawsuit that she had been a fourth-grade teacher at MacArthur University Academy, a public magnet school, for 10 years and had faced no issues concerning her religious beliefs prior to the Valentine’s Day party kerfuffle.

“She’s really a good woman devoted to teaching students,” Kathy Bogas, an attorney representing Lemmons, told Michigan Live. “Her abilities were never questioned until she challenged this directive.”

According to the lawsuit, on Feb. 12, 2014 — a Wednesday — the principal at MacArthur University Academy instructed Lemmons to throw an in-class Valentine’s Day party.

Lemmons refused, citing her status as a Jehovah’s Witness.

In the past, Bogas noted, parents of the students in Lemmons’s classes organized Valentine’s Day parties.

It’s not clear what was different about 2014. The lawsuit doesn’t say, and the school district would not comment on the lawsuit.

In any case, Lemmons did not show up for work on the day of the party — presumably Friday, Feb. 14, 2014.

Then, in June 2014, she was sacked.

Lemmons believes her dismissal is directly related to her refusal to organize be any part of the Valentine’s Day party.

“Defendant rejected all the Plaintiff’s suggestions that would have permitted students to have a holiday celebration without Plaintiff violating her religious beliefs,” the teacher’s court pleading states.

Lemmons and her attorneys argue that the school district’s refusal to accommodate her genuine religious belief and her subsequent job loss amount to illegal religious discrimination.

The lawsuit lists no specific dollar amount.

Lemmons has found work at an unnamed charter school since she was laid off.

Jehovah’s Witnesses object to Valentine’s Day because they seek a restoration of their notion of first-century Christianity. Valentine’s Day involves Cupid — the Greek god of erotic love — and one or more possibly martyred, third-century Roman saints named Valentinus.

Other holidays that Jehovah’s Witnesses spurn include Halloween. There’s no love for the Easter Bunny, either, because said bunny is, of course, a rabbit, and thus “a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility,” according to the official Jehovah’s Witnesses website

It’s not clear how Lemmons handled Halloween parties in her classroom, if they occurred.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses website JW.org that there are 8,220,105 Jehovah’s Witnesses in the world. This figure includes Prince.

The Notorious B.I.G. and President Dwight D. Eisenhower were reportedly raised as Jehovah’s Witnesses.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/01/25/suit-teacher-sacked-for-not-throwing-valentines-day-party/#ixzz4098jXth9

[Matthew9969]

Of course she had no problem forcing the kids to observe her religious views.

[Rosalie Barry]

I think it would be very hard to be a Witness and be a teacher in the public school system. I feel very sorry for this sister having to go through this.

[David Normand]

21 hours ago, Matthew9969 said:

Of course she had no problem forcing the kids to observe her religious views.

What are you talking about? There was no mention that she was teaching them religion nor was she asking them to observe her religious views. If they wanted to have a Valentine Day party they were free to do so as they have done so in the past and it was organized by the student's parents. In this case the principal asked her to organize the party and she refused. 

[Matthew9969]

In all my years in school, the teachers always organized the parties. And as I work with several children to this day, that hasn't changed. So it appears she was going to refuse to let them have a party. I believe she is suing just to try and get some money, not the first person in history to do that. I'll have to check to see if she lives in an at-will state.

[Matthew9969]

18 hours ago, Rosalie Barry said:

I think it would be very hard to be a Witness and be a teacher in the public school system. I feel very sorry for this sister having to go through this.

I agree, esp. if it's at a Christian private school.

[TrueTomHarley]

On 2/14/2016 at 9:16 PM, admin said:

"Jehovah’s Witnesses object to ValentineÂ’s Day because they seek a restoration of their notion of first-century Christianity. ValentineÂ’s Day involves Cupid — the Greek god of erotic love ...Other holidays that JehovahÂ’s Witnesses spurn include Halloween. ThereÂ’s no love for the Easter Bunny, either, because said bunny is, of course, a rabbit, and thus “a pagan symbol and has always been an emblem of fertility,”

It is clear to me that on three days of the year, the dailycaller reporter

1. pines away like Chalie Brown for Valentines

2. trick or treats like Freddy Krueger on Halloween, and

3. hops along the bunny trail on Easter Day.

 

photo by Jack

[Matthew9969]

Pagans breath air when they are worshipping and praying their pagan gods, there fore jw's should stop breathing.

[David Normand]

On 2/14/2018 at 6:19 PM, Matthew9969 said:

In all my years in school, the teachers always organized the parties. And as I work with several children to this day, that hasn't changed. So it appears she was going to refuse to let them have a party. I believe she is suing just to try and get some money, not the first person in history to do that. I'll have to check to see if she lives in an at-will state.

She stated that in the past the parents organized the parties.