I saw this a few days ago but got sidetracked. A teacher at Holy Trinity Catholic School in San Diego was fired because her abusive ex made a scene at her workplace:
Raw Story — Charlesworth said that the school learned about her situation after she requested a leave of absence following abuse by her husband in January. “Basically, we’d had a very bad weekend with him, we’d called the sheriff’s department three times on Sunday with him,” she recalled. After her husband showed up in the Holy Trinity’s parking lot, the school went into lockdown. The next day, parents were notified that Charlesworth and her four children, who also attended the school, had been put “on an indefinite leave.”
Then she was fired, which is a bit on the absurd side despite the “won’t someone please think of the children” spiel. Geez, the guy has a restraining order out against him and he’s in jail, what else is she supposed to do?
I see two big problems with this and maybe more. One it could be applied widely, way beyond domestic abuse. What if a teacher witnessed a violent crime and/or testified about it in court, wouldn’t the possibility of payback potentially threaten children in her classroom? And two, it discourages other teachers from reporting abuse. Actually, both of those would apply to more than teachers, the same rationale would work if applied to any workplace on behalf of the safety of adult students or coworkers.
How awful that the school has decided to join her husband in his campaign of abuse. What the fuck are they thinking?
You would have thought they could find another school to shuffle her to.
Never mind, all the other teachers and parents will protest against the sacking won’t they?
@2 – the lovely Catholic diocese explicitly said she could not work at any of their other schools. I guess she should have molested some kids to be eligible for that program…
The fact that there was a possibly violent disruption of school was not the issue contributing to her dismissal; rather, this is a massively backwards / conservative school, and how dare a mere wife disobey a husband?!?!
Discussing this on FA, some commenters were of the opinion that this was the diocese’s way of firing her for getting divorced.
And yes, the splash damage of this firing will likely be that no other teachers who are living in the same hell she was will dare come forward about their own abuse, lest their family be unceremoniously dumped out on their asses as well. Divorces can be messy and expensive, divorces from abusers who are skilled at using the courts to continue to abuse, even more so. The last thing a victim needs is to find herself in a custody battle with no job and no prospects.