Utah: Teacher Fired for Being a Witch

Erin Jensen is suing the Sevier School District in Utah because their firing of her appears to have been motivated by the belief (false, as it turns out) that she was a witch. Nasty rumors were flying around town for no other reason than that she was different from most people. So, she and another non-Mormon teacher were replaced by Mormons.

Salt Lake City Weekly explains:

“I think in many ways the religious discrimination in the workplace issue mirrors the issue of religion in Utah,” said Erik Strindberg, Jensen’s attorney. “It’s a problem, but it’s the 600-pound gorilla. It’s not spoken about,”

Minutes of a 2003 school board meeting just received by her attorneys tell the story. Superintendent Brent Thorne is recorded recommending against renewing Jensen’s contract for 2004 in a discussion that ends this way: “She also believes in witchcraft and paints her windows in her classroom black. Halloween is her favorite holiday and she doesn’t hide the fact that she prefers the dark side.”

Particularly disturbing is the fact that comments like the above were edited out of a copy of the minutes that were originally given to Jensen's attorneys. It sounds like the school board knew that they were in the wrong — that they had acted unethically and illegally — and were trying to cover it up. It's bad enough when people act on bigotry and prejudice; it's even worse when they know that they are wrong for doing so but go ahead and do it anyway.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office, which initially defended the school district, withdrew shortly before the unedited version of the minutes were turned over by the school district’s new, private lawyer. The attorney general’s office “cannot ethically provide any further representation to defendants,” the office wrote the court. On Monday, Jensen’s attorneys argued in court she should win the case without trial because the district withheld key evidence.

On the rumors:

[O]ne board member testified she received a call from a janitor concerned about rumors Jensen kept blood in a classroom refrigerator. Parents called to complain about Jensen taking vacation on Halloween and giving students the impression “she could believe in some witch characteristics,” the board member said.

One parent, the member testified, “was concerned that some thoughts from the world would enter into the child’s classroom.” Others were upset at “giving kids the option of questioning what their beliefs might be.”

“It’s a good example of how discrimination or bias works,” said Strindberg. “If someone is different from you, you start ascribing ill motives or misconduct to them. She was different, not very, but just different enough so that these rumors started.”

Parents were worried that thoughts from the world might enter a public school classroom? I suggest that this town has problems that run far deeper than just discrimination against someone who is thought to be a witch. These people have serious and fundamental problems with xenophobia at a minimum — and it's their children who are likely to suffer the most because of it.

Read More:

• Separation of Church and State 101
• Church and State News
• Religion in Public Schools