The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is accusing a private Salt Lake County school of discriminating against a teacher because she was pregnant.
In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, the agency alleges that Reid School officials either fired or refused to rehire Tawna Pippin, who had taught preschool at Reid School for three academic years.
The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages for Pippin's financial losses and her alleged humiliation, as well as an injunction barring the school from engaging in any discrimination.
Mervin Reid, president of the preschool-to-ninth grade school, 2965 E. 3435 South, denied the allegations, saying at least three other teachers were given maternity leave about the time Pippin was pregnant.
"We've always been excited when they said they're expecting," Reid said. "Some of them worked up
to about two weeks before the baby was born and some came back a month or so after that." He added that Pippin said she was not returning to work after the birth of her baby but when she later said she wanted to come back, school officials offered to pay her salary for a semester while she was gone and let her resume teaching after that. The offer was declined, he said.
"It just didn't happen," Reid said of the alleged discrimination.
Email This Page!