Courtesy of the Huffington Post:
Cathy Samford, a 29-year-old former science teacher and volleyball coach at Heritage Christian Academy in Rockwall, Texas, was fired last fall after the school discovered she had become pregnant out of wedlock.
In a recent interview with ABC News, Samford said she and her fiance had been planning to get married, though complications forced the wedding to be delayed.
"I'm not just some teacher that went out to a bar and got pregnant and went back to school saying it's okay," Samford said in the interview. "I was in a committed relationship the whole time and probably would have been married if things had gone differently and this would be a non-situation."
After becoming aware of her pregnancy, Samford approached school officials about missing part of the upcoming volleyball season. It was then that, according to Samford, the school responded by telling her she would be terminated.
Let me remind my readers that the SOLE reason for this firing is based on a religious belief that it is sinful to have sex outside of marriage, and the desire to promote a primitive mindset that women HAVE to married in order to parent their children. (See my earlier post addressing the basis for the conservatives War on Women.)This woman is not suddenly unable to do her job effectively, any more than a pregnant MARRIED woman is unable to continue functioning in their place of employment.
I should also mention that this woman is losing a job that she needs in order to support her newborn baby, how does THAT equate with the Fundamentalists expressed "Pro-Life" stance, or their contention that the liberals are the ones promoting an "Anti-woman" agenda?
Quick somebody ask Ann Romney or Sarah Palin about this woman's situation.
Oh wait, here's their answer.
God, I hate hypocrites!
Courtesy of the 
Ok. But. I always have a tough time with these. Basically, when she took the job, she passed herself off as a committed member of the religious practice community which hired her. Her evidence of non-committal may reveal that she lied. Perhaps there was some kind of accident, or poor timing of marriage, or something. But basically, she broke her promise by failing to abide by the rules she voluntarily pledged to uphold. Forgive me if I don't shed a tear.
ReplyDeleteIf she is really a teacher and has credentials, perhaps she can find a teaching job with less rigorous religious restrictions. And, in the future, she might think twice about promising something she has no intention of fulfilling.
Yeah this seems a no-brainer. No Christian school want an unmarried pregnant woman teaching their children. Duh.
DeleteShe offered to get married. They said no-dice--still fired.
DeleteHer "offer" was too late.
DeleteHow about the boyfriend - Would they fire him because he got a girl pregnant - OF COURSE NOT. Your sexist unrealistic attitude is showing
DeleteRight, because teaching jobs in this era of cost cutting are just soooo easy to come by. THe minute a religion enters the business arena - and education these days is a business. they should have to play by business rules.
DeleteNever mind that Christ was conceived 'out of wedlock' too and that Joseph was his 'step-dad'. Hypocrisy. They just made baby Jesus cry.
DeleteSo glad I left organized religion behind.
M from MD
I always thought it fascinating that Joseph was Jesus. Step father.
DeleteConsidering how the religious right frowns on any
STRANGE family like that...
I went to Catholic high school.
DeleteIt is strictly against the Catholic Faith to have pre ~ marital sex.
As a teacher there, you, like all teachers, were supposed to teach, but also model yourself for the students.
To have a pregnant, unmarried teacher in the school that is set up to specifically include the teachings of the Catholic Church, is a slap in the face of all the parents in the school.
And yes, I think a male teacher who impregnated his gf would be let go as well.
Why do the rights of one person ~ who sought these people out and knew exactly what the school believed ~
Trump the rights of every person involved in the school?
And the engagement after the fact, though nice, is certainly NOT part of the deal when a woman/girl has an unplanned pregnancy.
It's making lemonade out of lemons,
But the school is concerned about too many teens walking around,
With only lemons (meaning there is no engagement in the end, just a single mom, and everything that entails).
To be honest, I'm puzzled as to why she and her fiance didn't run to the Justice of the Peace and get married so she could keep her job and health coverage, before asking for time off during volleyball season. I'm also puzzled as to why she thought it would be no problem in a Christian school to be an unwed mom. Is it one of these dream wedding things?
DeleteThere is an old story where a nun was fired because she was pregnant. The reason that the nun was pregnant is because she was raped, and because of her religious beliefs, she refused to abort the baby of her rapist. She was forced to give the child up for adoption, she lost her job and then she sued. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19850621&id=-zwyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=26UFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1964,322720
ReplyDeleteI happen to know how the case turned out. She won her lawsuit for wrongful termination.
Good greif, that is awful.
DeleteI guess it's her fault for no practicing abstinance.
No, wait. It's her fault for not having an asprin between her legs.
No, wait, it's her fault by the way she dresses.
No wait, well. It's just her fault for being born a woman.
Ok, this one is wrongful termination. The original story? Not so much.
DeleteI guess she wishes now that she taught in the public school system. But she probably didn't want to join that pesky teachers union.
ReplyDeleteAny teacher that teaches at a private school knows they are subject to things like this ( and no I do not think it is correct at all)
MEN aren't subject to these rules
DeleteIn Texas, unfortunately, there are no teachers unions. We have professional organizations but there is no collective bargaining and such. Texas is a right to work state - you can be fired at will.
DeleteWell, I'm sure that the school would fire a man that impregnated a woman when he wasn't married to her. Right? Right?
ReplyDelete(crickets)
Well, it wouldn't be his fault if some slut got pregnant by him.
DeleteAnyway - he would have a child to support.
Totally differnt.
/snark off
Right. Because while women are responsible for becoming pregnant, men have no responsibility for where their stuff lands.
DeleteRiiiiight.
DeleteAnd Bristol gets a pass because ....... ?
I guess the rules are different depending on whose side you're on.
It's not like that woman had a union to help her.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting case from a strictly legal standpoint. In spite of any documents she signed, or any "policies" the school may have, the Christian school is subject to the employment laws of her State, as well as any applicable Federal statutes.
ReplyDeleteHow that gets adjudicated in a court of law will be interesting.
What's absurd, is thinking that some 3rd grade kids are going to be harmed by something that won't even show for 5 months.
Well, since the GOP is gutting any law protecting any woman from everything deemed un-Christian by the STATE, my guess is she will have no legal standing whatsoever.
DeleteMany, if not most, teachers in private schools (especially Christian) are not accredited here in Texas, as the SBEC credentialling process is optional for private schools.
ReplyDeleteI live in Rockwall, am familiar with the school and know many families who have left the (very good) public schools for the more "Christ-centered" education at HCA, with the additional benefit of protecting their children from the secular influences of less religious classmates. Google Lake Pointe Church - it's the dominant influence in our little suburban enclave of extremely conservative, affluent Republicans.
Teachers at HCA are very aware of the expectations of their behavior and conduct when they become employed, and many in fact are quite open about valuing what they perceive as a more righteous environment, far superior to public schools both for their colleagues and their students, along with the curriculum.
As much as I would like to defend this woman's right to continue employment once pregnant outside of marriage, I am certain that she agreed to these rules before she later violated them.
You can't have it both ways.
And now I will leave you with an image which has helped me live here for these last long five years: yes, the parking lot is full behind the huge multimillion dollar youth wing of the church every Wednesday and Sunday night... and yes, Christian rock music is playing on the car radio... but those are still teenagers screwing like rabbits in the back seat of that Saab.
Exactly. You can't have it both ways.
DeleteExactly. You can't have it both ways.
DeleteOh please ... there ain't no Texas conservative Christian that owns a Saab!
DeleteWhy can't you have it both ways - men do - talk about a war on women - gets worse every day
DeleteTexas, like most states, still has fuzzy undefined "moral turpitude" requirements even for certification.
DeleteAnd yet, look at Penn State. That fellow molests under age CHILDREN for years & keeps HIS job.
ReplyDeleteYeah, right. There isn't a war on women. Crickets indeed.
Penn State probably doesn't have any rigorous guidelines that employees are required to honor which specifically precludes pedophilia.
DeletePenn State probably doesn't have any rigorous guidelines that employees are required to honor which specifically precludes pedophilia.
DeleteYeah right, because a university thinks obeying child molestation laws is optional - grow up
DeleteSo long as they don't get public money they should be able to hire/fire who they want. But then I guess being tax exempt is a form of public money isn't it. Apparently they're more interesting in saving on their taxes than they are in freedom.
ReplyDeleteAnd what about the Mormon church, having to allow blacks into heaven just so they can get their tax break? That hardly seems fair.
If these organizations really and truly want to be free to live by the tenets of their faith then maybe we should do away with this tax exemption nonsense and give them all the freedom they want.
It's interesting, even the sixteenth century Catholic church (as laid out in the council of Trent) was perfectly okay with childbirth out of wedlock, so long as there was a promise of marriage. No shame, no bastard label, no problem. But then I guess we can't expect Texas to be as liberal as sixteenth century Spain.
Spain was still in the grip of the Inquisition as late as the 16th century, not sure how that makes them liberal.
DeleteIt's sarcasm.
DeleteThe irony is that I bet this school would have piid big money a year or so ago to have Bristol come & talk about abstianance.
ReplyDeleteGREAT POINT!!
DeleteSo how much was Shailey Tripp's payoff? I'm thinking at least a million. I guess it's true.. money really will make any problem go away. Is that why SarahPAC is suddenly so deep in the hole? It's a damn shame Shailey turned out to be a coward in the end. Who will expose Todd the Pimp and the corrupt APD now? I'm so disgusted right now. The bullies win again.
ReplyDeleteYou need to fill us in here on this.
DeleteLike I say every day when reading blogs, the newspaper, seeing things on TV, or hearing things on the radio - we truly are one screwed up nation!! And, I think the Republicans/extreme right to be culprits! I'm sick and tired of religion being rammed down our throats. The USA is becoming less and less a christian nation and it is driving them nuts!
ReplyDeleteI'm also sick of President Obama being so badly disrespected by the Republicans. He is "President" Obama, which they never say. They so hate the fact that he is part black - well educated - and doing a hell of a job in spite of them in Congress. I don't know how he keeps his kindness and positive attitude throughout the hate that is thrown his way. I'm sure Michelle is a huge support for him.
He has my vote in November for a second term. If the Repubs get back in, it will scare the hell out of me!
We were never a "Christian nation" to begin with. We were atheist, Christians of varying stripes, Jewish, Muslin, Hindu, etc erc etc. We used to be proud of being a melting pot. Then the white evangel pastors noticed that the country was becoming more a people of color, and not attending THEIR churches (wonder why?) So they decided to declare America "Christian" and attack anyone and everyone who didn't fall in line behind theur narrow, racist viewpoints. Until now, that was most of us...but they have done a great job recruiting nuts like Palin , and gathering money for attack ads from the Kochs (who are probably Jewish, just saying) and scaring the crap out of people for no reason other than to turn this nation into some radical theocracy.
DeleteThe only way the kids would know if she wasn't married would be if she (or somebody from the school) told them.
ReplyDeleteAnd anyway, how many of those kids are from single parent homes?
Actually, I would be surprised if there were any single parents at HCA. I live in Rockwall and know many families who spend big bucks to send their children to this school. These folks may be on their third marriages, may even have been married when they began adulterous relationships with their future spouse, but by golly they are married when they are having sex!
DeleteAlso, kids are hyper-conscious of both the standards and the hypocrisy among their parents in this very conservative, prosperous suburb. The worst thing you can be called is a slut. I know girls who have run away rather than face their parents over a pregnancy scare.
What I'm trying to say is, things are extreme here. And HCA is where the students are put to protect them from all the godless heathens in the public school. (Many even send their kids into Dallas to Bishop Lynch Catholic High, but hereabouts Catholics are viewed as a cult anyway.)
I don't know how strict the school in question is, but most christian schools aren't all that strict. I bet they allow their students and teachers to mix their fabrics, not marry their rapist, and don't stone them for cursing their parents. Yet, they'll enforce this rule, even though she got pregnant by her fiancee! Would they have preferred she get an abortion?! And while I have no proof of this, forgive me for thinking they wouldn't have forced a man to leave if he had sex out of wedlock, christians aren't known for applying their rules to men and women equally.
ReplyDeleteThen there's the whole issue of an employer not being able to monitor and regulate what you do in your off duty time. Granted, there are good legal reasons to assure your employees aren't child predators, violent felons or frauds, but what business is it of theirs beyond that? As long as she teaches according to their values in the class room, what do they care? If they were so damned concerned that the kiddos would be tainted by the knowledge of her marital status, rather than fire her they could've asked her to tell the kids she is married, and wear a ring...
I call hypocrisy of the most misogynistic sort.
Do as I say, not as I do?
DeleteYeah. That works GREAT!
Please.
Maybe Cathy Samford will get a trial marriage?
ReplyDeleteThat is the Palin Christian Family Values that Sarah Palin teaches her unmarried single abstinent daughter with three kids.
IOKIYAR
DeleteThey said they wanted to fire her because she was an unwed mother. She offered to get married so she could keep her job, but they still want to fire her.
ReplyDeleteIt's antiquated "punishments" for unplanned pregnancy that push some women towards having an abortion, whether it be fear of job loss or relentless and unforgiving judgement or both. The more and harsher you judge women for getting pregnant, the longer abortion will last, legal or otherwise. Idiots.
ReplyDeleteBecause she lost her job, she lost her insurance.
ReplyDeleteWHAT JERKS!!!
I guess she should have gotten an abortion--that way she could have kept her job.
ReplyDeleteIs that the message they want to send?
Seriously. Who would be stupid enough to have an abortion in order to keep a job at a religious school. Seriously.
DeleteSomeone with student loans, a mortgage and with skills for a job sector that is being gutted.
DeleteI'm an outspoken advocate of women's rights and am outraged by the attitude of this school. But I have to agree with the first poster. This teacher knowingly accepted employment at a religiously conservative school, and knew the rules. If she thought the rules were ok before she got pregnant, then they're ok after she got pregnant. They might be stupid rules, but she agreed to them. No sympathy here. These women have to wake up and realize the fundamentalist churches and schools they support, attend, and work at, have no love for women.
ReplyDeleteFine. Fire her for not upholding their standards. But they better fire everybody else who doesn't uphold their standards. Otherwise, it is discrimination.
DeleteIf you believe that - you are no outspoken advocate for women's rights - advocates support all women - not just those who fit the requirements of the religious right.
DeleteExactly, 2:18. I hope she has a good labor lawyer to review the rest of the handbook. A few picks of other teachers and clerics of this "church" at the local bars, vacations, etc. would likely be welcomed by her attorney.
DeleteIf her contract said she had to be a good Christian & getting pregnant out of wedlock is not being a good Christian, then what does that say about the Palin clan?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I hope the church excommunicates all people from their church who ever had sex outside of marriage. You know, because they weren't being good Christians.
Ol' Mitt would just bully her to give up her child for adoption.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/12/mitt-romney-pressure-adoption-book_n_1200865.html
To heck with forgiveness - FIRE the SLUT!!
ReplyDelete(so says the school board)
So, if you can get fired for not upholding Christian values....
ReplyDeleteHas anybody been fired at this school for cussing?
Has anybody been fired at this school for not giving to charity?
Has anybody been fired at this school for missing Sunday services?
Has anybody been fired at this school for taking a sip of beer (not that I believe that drinking is non Christian)?
Has anybody been fired at this school for the sin of gluttony (being fat)?
Has anybody been fired at this school for gossiping? You can bet (hee hee) that is going on right now in the hallways...
Has anybody been fired at this school for gambling? They do have the lottery in Texas.
Has anybody been fired at this school for telling lies?
I mean, if she can lose her job & health insurance because she isn't acting in a Chritian manner & setting a Christian example, I think its only fair that other members of the staff get treated the same way.
After all, the school claims that this isn't because she is pregnant, its because she isn't setting a good Christian example.
It would have been better for her to have an abortion and nobody would have been the wiser right? I mean seriously, she had to choose between her job and her baby. She made the right choice for her, but the irony is that if she had a safe and legal abortion, they wouldn't have fired her now would they? Not unless they knew about it. They don't get the twisted knots they are asking their followers to put themselves into. They quite literally disgust me.
ReplyDeleteNo one is forced--yet--to join any church or work for any religious institution. Her choice was dictated by the religious practice of the community which hired her. She wasn't forced to choose between her job and her baby, she was forced to choose between honoring the rules of her employer, or not honoring them.
DeleteAnd do you think of that when you do the horizontal tango? Hmmmmm?
DeleteOne MORE TIME, In this job market - yes, one is being forced.
Wait- do you all see the posters and wall hangings in that classroom? Don't tread on me? Right!
ReplyDeleteThere is currently a court case in Florida based on the same thing. A teacher was fired back in 2009 because she was pregnant.
ReplyDeleteExcept in the Florida case, the woman was pregnant & the principal asked when the child was conceived.
When they found out the woman was pregnant but married only for a short time, they fired her because she got pregnant out of wedlock, but was married before the child was born.
WAR
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.chron.com/nickanderson/2012/04/war-games-2/
Decisions, decisions....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cagle.com/2012/04/romney-stay-at-home-mom/
GOPs War On Women
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cagle.com/2012/04/gops-war-on-women/
Same thing happened at my brother's San Antonio high school YEARS ago
ReplyDeleteLou Sarah has nothing to say about her Christian Values and UNWED PREGNANCIES? She is definitely THE EXPERT on UNWED PREGNANCIES, HER HOUSE HAS MORE THAN MOST. Bristol will be a Grandmother and still UNMARRIED.
ReplyDeleteI find it irrelevant when or how she got pregnant and whether or not she had a boyfriend.
ReplyDeleteThe false morality is always astounding - Would her boyfriend have got fired because she was pregnant? That should be the question these fools should ask. THE WOMAN IS ALWAYS THE ONE WHO PAYS THE PRICE - and the wealthy ones who have never had a job do not have a clue how most women are treated.
Arizona Legislates Women Into a State of Perpetual Pregnancy
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politicususa.com/arizona-perpetual-pregnancy/
----
ShePAC? Isn't that Sarah's SuperPAC?
According to the Right, You Are Afraid of Ann Romney!
I learned today that I am afraid of Ann Romney. That’s what the Republicans are telling me. Honestly, I never gave two thoughts to the woman. I’m more interested in her useless excuse of a husband. If I would have realized I was supposed to be afraid of Ann Romney, I swear I would have tried harder.
But now, looking back, I can’t really find anything to be afraid of. After all, she’s not the one running for office.
Nevertheless, Teri Christoph and Suzanne Haik Terrell are co-chairwomen of ShePAC, a “movement to support, honor and elect conservative women” have written on CNN Election Center that the ”left fears Ann Romney.” And apparently, Ann Romney is “every” woman, or so Christoph and Terrell would have us believe.
http://www.politicususa.com/fear-ann-romney/
Beltway pundit Hilary Rosen committed a mortal sin of American politics: She spoke the truth with a microphone on.
ReplyDelete“What you have,” she told Anderson Cooper on Wednesday night, “is Mitt Romney running around the country saying: ‘Well, you know, my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues. And when I listen to my wife, that’s what I’m hearing.’
“Guess what?” Rosen observed. “His wife has actually never worked a day in her life.”
With that, the storm erupted.
Of course stay-at-home moms “work,” women from Barbara Bush to Michelle Obama quickly asserted. All that housekeeping and child care is a lot of work. President Obama, apparently needing more distance from Rosen’s comments, suggested Thursday that candidates’ spouses should be “off limits” altogether.
And surely, taking care of a family is hard work. In Ann Romney’s case, managing the very elaborate Romney establishment — five children,three or four houses and two Cadillacs — probably takes as much labor as most jobs in the market economy. Within 24 hours, Rosen was apologizing to all those women laboring in their homes for implying that they don’t work.
In the furor, everyone seemed to forget that unpaid mothers and household work are not what the discussion is about. Republicans are not talking about how jobs for stay-at-home moms have decreased under Obama.
They are talking about how paid work for women has suffered. Mitt Romney said this past week that 92 percent of the jobs lost under Obama were lost by women. Erick Erickson, a Republican commentator who joined Rosen on Cooper’s CNN show, argued that the president is responsible for the decline of women’s jobs in the paid workplace.
And work as she may, that’s one place Ann Romney has never been. She has spent her life in the private precincts of the marital workplace, where emotional ties replace the financial norms of the factory or office.
Now, she has emerged to campaign for her husband and to explain to him what women want. “I’ve had the fun of being out with my wife the last several days on the campaign trail,” Mitt Romney told Fox Newsthis month. “And she points out that as she talks to women, they tell her that their number one concern is the economy.”
At a recent campaign event, Romney said he wished his wife were there to help answer a question about female voters. “She says that she’s going across the country and talking with women, and what they’re talking about is the debt that we’re leaving the next generation and the failure of this economy to put people back to work.”
When Ann Romney’s husband, who faces a gender gap in some polls, uses her experience and insight as a megaphone for women’s concern over fewer paid jobs, he mistakenly assumes that all women are fungible. Which was, I take it, Rosen’s original point.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hilary-rosen-was-right-ann-romney-doesnt-speak-for-women-in-the-workforce/2012/04/13/gIQAqv3jFT_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop
A grade-A lawsuit in the making.
ReplyDeleteI'm not a believer, but wasn't it Jesus Christ who said "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do".
ReplyDeleteI think it's wrong she got fired, but I doubt this school is practicing what it preaches.
Yeah, it's a "christian" school, that probably harps on and on about pro-life. She didn't take any vows of celibacy, and she's a human being deserving of a means of making a life for her child.
I also wonder how many pregnant students they've "fired".
This war on women has to stop, especially when it's a tax exempt religious entity collecting tuition.