Earlier this year I reported on a Utah teacher who was apparently fired for being a witch. She sued for religious bias, but a jury has ruled against her despite was appears to be indisputable evidence in her favor. I'm at a loss for why she didn't win and the news report doesn't explain what could have happened.

Deseret News reports:

Jensen worked as an English teacher as South Sevier High School for about three years before she was terminated in 2003 and told she could never apply for a job at the school district again. Just months before she was fired, the teacher who founded the school’s debate team and helped put together the yearbook was voted “teacher of the year” by school faculty.

District board members and Thorne testified they were concerned about overall SAT test scores in English when they chose to fire Jensen and another English teacher, a man. They were the only full-time teachers who were not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

School officials also expressed concern that some parents had complained about Jensen teaching their children about different religions. And students referred to the hallway where the two non-LDS teachers’ rooms were located as “hell’s corner.”

From the earlier report:

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.”

A district secretary was ordered to change these minutes to remove all references to 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.”

Like I said, there is nothing in the news report which explains why all the above evidence either wasn’t believable or didn’t point to blatant religious bias. There is nothing in the article which suggests any legal reasons for why the jury didn’t rule in Jensen’s favor. I am forced to wonder, then, why they ruled against her. Given that so much of the bias seems to be related to the fact that Jensen wasn’t Mormon, could it be that the jury was similarly biased against her?

I hope she considers appealing — not even the Utah Attorney General’s Office was willing to support the school district. They said that they “cannot ethically provide” representation to them on account of the falsification of the minutes. Every bit of evidence indicates that the school district acted shamefully and with all deliberate bias — just another example of what it’s like for a person who is not a member o the religious majority in a community where religion is used as a factor in political decisions.

 

Read More:

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