It's not only incredibly stupid, it's incredibly illegal. I don't like to jump on the "SUE THEM!!!!1!!!1!" bandwagon, but OP should consider it.

I can't imagine that they have the legal right to fire you for that, unless you were employed under some really unusual agreement. Try reading over your employment contract and finding some sort of damning statement, showing that you were guaranteed maternity leave (I would reasonably assume that you were, or this wouldn't be much of an FML). Hopefully you could arrange for some sort of compensation for what they've done. All that aside, congratulations on your baby!

@75 There doesn't need to be a maternity agreement in an employee contract. Maternity leave is a right granted by federal law.

@93 Thank you, I was pretty sure that was the case, but after hearing this, I wasn't very sure at all. But if they blatantly broke the law and caused needless financial hardship for OP, I certainly hope justice finds them.

Actually, most private/religious schools have the right to fire pregnant women if they are unmarried because it goes against their fundamental beliefs. I don't agree with this reasoning but it's the only legal way I can see this happening

I agree, this is definitely illegal. You know how many teachers i have had (or have seen around school) growing up that were pregnant? Quite a lot. And they were never fired. I have seen teachers that seemed to be 6-7 months pregnant and they would just take up to a year off while a sub covered them. And it never harmed their job

Thats exactly what the school didn't want to deal with

How about "maternity" leave?

HUGE difference between maternity leave and being fired...

I don't think America allows maternity leave.

That's still not a good reason. Traditional family values are overrated.

Even though its not a good reason christian schools can and have fired women for that reason.

This counts as discrimination. File a lawsuit, op. Pregnancy discrimination is a real issue

Can they actually do that in the US? Just wow.

Private schools can and should be able to. Public schools cannot. However, just the idea that anybody can be fired for a pregnancy shows the intolerance of surrogate mothers, couples who don't believe in the idea of marriage, and parents who choose to break away from irresponsible partners for the sake of their children. Ludicrous and insane that people still take religion over logic.

i have heard the same thing, #3. except, i see her name has Mrs in it. in which case thats probably illegal what her employer did.

Ah, I didn't see the Mrs. In that case yes definitely illegal. And public schools can terminate employment if it says in your contract. My mother was a teacher and it was in hers

That's an illegal contract, IIRC. Plenty of contracts have illegal clauses that go unnoticed because it scares the people who sign them into thinking the employer is justified in doing what they write into it.

Religious schools will also fire pregnant women if they got pregnant through in-vitro. (Cus Jesus wanted people that broke the rules to be thrown out. All those parts of the bible that showed him doing the opposite doesn't count.) *sigh* Some religious people would be a lot easier to deal with if they read the book.

As discriminatory as it sounds it is true. There is a moral clause in our contract, and many things can fall under it.

Nothing about starting a family with her husband violates a morality clause. Plain and simple, they just don't like what she's done.

Not at a public school. At a public school, she'd still be fine in suing. At a private school, yeah, they might be able to claim she's a bad influence and it's immoral or something dumb like that.

Where I live that would still be illegal and you'd get sued for sure!

Depends. If you're single and working for a private religious school, it might be in your contract as dismissible. Stupid, but possible.

Her username says Mrs, which suggests she is married

Also, it depends on the country she's in. I'm sure other countries have some messed up laws.

It says USA.

#92 she's in California

Ah so it does. That's what I get for glancing!

Unless the father is a student?

Exactly, I am sure that by firing someone at work for being pregnant shouldn't be allowed.

Isn't that wedlock thing only if the baby is born?

The idea is that she had intercourse before marriage, which would have happened around 9 months before the baby was born.

So I wonder what happens when a teacher at that school gets divorced. I guess if it is written in their contract then whatever, but otherwise it is illegal to fire someone based on race, age, sexual orientation, marriage status. It's discrimination, clean and clear.

Well, sure, but you also can't get an abortion if you teach at a Catholic school. That'll also get you fired.

If abortion isn't illegal then it's none of the schools business of someone gets one or not. How could they prove it happened? And unless it is in their contract, they wouldn't be able to fire hem for it.

How would they know though?

I'm sorry but that's just sick. You can fire someone becase they got pregnant in normal parts of the world, is this really what america is?

Only 12 weeks mat leave, but by the sounds of it, OP is pregnant so firing her for being pregnant is illegal, she can be let go if she does not return from her mat leave but that's it.

A lot of Catholic schools have in their teacher's contracts that they must uphold the teachings of the church. So no sex outside marriage, no being gay, etc.

you are correct unless your contract says otherwise, or sometimes they're real slick and find a stupid unrelated reason that technically justifies termination

It's maternity leave for good. They said I could re apply in a few years

Can they legally do this though?