• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Should a Christian school be allowed to fire a teacher for fornication?

Should a Christian school be allowed to fire a teacher for fornication?

  • Yes, they should be allowed to demand a traditional Christian moral code from all teachers

    Votes: 25 35.7%
  • They should be allowed if they prove they apply the same standards to all teachers

    Votes: 3 4.3%
  • They should be allowed, but that doesn't make it right

    Votes: 19 27.1%
  • They are discriminating against women, since fornication is more obvious with them

    Votes: 3 4.3%
  • If the school board members can prove they never fornicated, then they stand on solid ground

    Votes: 2 2.9%
  • Christian schools should not be allowed to discriminate on moral grounds

    Votes: 9 12.9%
  • Christians are the biggest bunch of hypocrites on the face of the Earth!

    Votes: 5 7.1%
  • Other response

    Votes: 4 5.7%

  • Total voters
    70
If there was a written contractural agreement at the time of hire, specifying codes of conduct which were to be upheld, then yes, they should be able to fire the teacher.
 
Well for one her right to privacy off the clock.

She was pregnant before she was married. It is a Christian institution and she was showing before being married. No right was violated. Florida is AGAIN an "at will" state. You can be fired for any reason at any time.

An employer can no more dictate an individual's diet than they can dictate whom and when they have sex.

They are not dictating who she has sex with. They are dictating you can't be pregnant before marriage. This is Florida, they could fire her for being a vegetarian if they wanted too. No right would be violated under Florida law, or the Constitution.

One more time...

Florida is an "At Will" state. You can be fired for any reason no questions asked.
 
Last edited:
If there was a written contractural agreement at the time of hire, specifying codes of conduct which were to be upheld, then yes, they should be able to fire the teacher.

Some contracts are illegal and or not supportable in a court of law.
 
Would that specific type of contract be illegal? If so, then Ross Perot has some 'splainin to do.

LOL my cousin use to date his daughter and Ross Jr. use to live in the house I grew up in.
 
I think it's a real shame that they did this. The woman slipped up and didn't abort her baby to hide the fact that she did have sexual intercourse before her marriage, while she was engaged. The school decided to confront her about that and nitpick the rules as an excuse to fire her. I think they did it because it's a pain in the ass to grant maternity leave. I think they are hypocrites and I hope the PR backlash from this hurts them. They are poor excuses for Christians. I'll bet most of the people working there have fornicated at one time or another.

So yes, the school probably has the right to use their moral clause as an excuse to can someone, but that doesn't make it right.
 
Some contracts are illegal and or not supportable in a court of law.

In Florida, employees are presumed to be "at will." At-will employees may be terminated for any reason, so long as it's not illegal. Generally, employees who work under an employment contract can only be terminated for reasons specified in the contract. In Florida, it is very difficult to overcome the at-will presumption.

Employers are not allowed to terminate or discriminate against employees for the following reasons:

•Age
•Race
•Sex
•Religion
•National origin
•Disability
•Pregnancy
It's illegal for an employer to consider these characteristics with regard to:

•Promotions
•Job assignments
•Termination
•Wages
And it's illegal for an employer to terminate an employee:
•For refusing to break a law
•In retaliation for filing a discrimination or safety claim
•For taking leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act
•Without following its own stated procedure or policy
•For reasons not contained in the employment contract, if one exists

MyFoxOrlando obtained a letter sent to Hamilton from the school which asked not to return because of "fornication," sex outside of marriage. It also claims that Hamilton knew about the school's moral stance through the employment application process.

I don’t think she is going to win this as the school did nothing wrong.
 
In Florida, employees are presumed to be "at will." At-will employees may be terminated for any reason, so long as it's not illegal. Generally, employees who work under an employment contract can only be terminated for reasons specified in the contract. In Florida, it is very difficult to overcome the at-will presumption.

Employers are not allowed to terminate or discriminate against employees for the following reasons:

•Age
•Race
Sex
•Religion
•National origin
•Disability
•Pregnancy
It's illegal for an employer to consider these characteristics with regard to:

•Promotions
•Job assignments
•Termination
•Wages
And it's illegal for an employer to terminate an employee:
•For refusing to break a law
•In retaliation for filing a discrimination or safety claim
•For taking leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act
•Without following its own stated procedure or policy
•For reasons not contained in the employment contract, if one exists

MyFoxOrlando obtained a letter sent to Hamilton from the school which asked not to return because of "fornication," sex outside of marriage. It also claims that Hamilton knew about the school's moral stance through the employment application process.

I don’t think she is going to win this as the school did nothing wrong.


She had SEX.......
 
The thing is... It doesn't matter anything about why she was fired. Doesn't matter if its a christian school or a public school, doesn't matter what the circumstances are. In a right to fire state, such as here in Alabama, you can be fired for ANY reason. Your boss can not like your mustache and fire you for it and it is perfectly legal. Right or wrong, like it or don't, that is just how it is.

She may get somewhere suing and saying... hey they fired me because I was pregnant. I seriously doubt it though, I think she loses this fight either way.
 
Last edited:
If I was her I'd go back and tell them that I had been mistaken. After getting a second opinion, she now knows that conception occurred the day after she was married. I'd like to see some solid proof that can determine the moment she conceived. Three weeks seems like a small enough window for an estimation.

Hey, guess what, I didn't fornicate after all.
 
So yes, the school probably has the right to use their moral clause as an excuse to can someone, but that doesn't make it right.

Well, you and I both know that legal doesn't always mean right, and illegal doesn't always mean wrong.:) And as bad as I might feel for the teacher, her doing the right thing (which she did in my opinion) is her most important responsibility, and speaks volumes for her character.
 
She can't win. It is a private institution and Florida is an "at will" state. You can be fired for any reason at any time, period. The worst that she can do is maybe collect unemployment. The law suit will go no place.

If she had claimed discrimination, she maybe could have gotten something. Not for this as it was not discriminatory.

That's not always true. Just because Florida is an "at will" state doesn't mean they don't have to follow certain guidelines when it comes to the treatment, hiring, and termination of their employees. Several things could factor in like hostility of the work environment, whether the same standards are applied to all employees, discrimination, etc.

I believe strongly in the rights of private businesses but I also believe there are implied contractual obligations on the part of the employer since they are basically soliciting the responsibility of having the strongest hand in a person's livelihood and financial well-being. If you don't want to play by certain rules, then you always have the right to not hire people, too. The responsibility of bearing all the risk in an employment situation should not fall completely on the employeed while the employer gets a pass to exert authority or leverage separation of income capriciously.
 
Last edited:
As much as I hate to say it, if the lady violated school policy it is within their rights as a private entity to fire her for cause. By her own admission, she became pregnant before she was married. The Christian church views that as fornication and goes against their core value system. Doesn't matter if she concieved 24 hrs before the wedding. It's still viewed as "conception out of wedlock".

Now, me personally I would have placed the teacher on maternity leave since she did get married and the school didn't find out for sure about her pregnancy until she told them. I mean, she was only 3 weeks into conception; she couldn't have been showing that much. And since she did go ahead with the weeding soon after conception...

It's tacky, but in this case I'd have to reluctantly say her firing was justified.
 
That's not always true. Just because Florida is an "at will" state doesn't mean they don't have to follow certain guidelines when it comes to the treatment, hiring, and termination of their employees. Several things could factor in like hostility of the work environment, whether the same standards are applied to all employees, discrimination, etc.

I believe strongly in the rights of private businesses but I also believe there are implied contractual obligations on the part of the employer since they are basically soliciting the responsibility of having the strongest hand in a person's livelihood and financial well-being. If you don't want to play by certain rules, then you always have the right to not hire people, too. The responsibility of bearing all the risk in an employment situation should not fall completely on the employeed while the employer gets a pass to exert authority or leverage separation of income capriciously.

I agree, but post #37 is better at explaining why. In this case she appears to have broken the rules even if by accident.

http://www.debatepolitics.com/polls...ire-teacher-fornication-4.html#post1058796402
 
She was not doing anything illegal nor trying intentionally to harm the school. She should sue them.

Wouldn't this be similar to businesses that screen for nicotine? They are both legal and done in off time yet they can fire you for both. I understand there is a difference. One is based on beliefs and one is based on finacial reasons (lower insurance premiums). But in the end I believe a employer should be able to set any standards they wish as long as employees have it in writting and agree to it prior to employment.
 
As I understand it...It depends.

Depending on the laws of the area the incident occurs in.

Depending on the contract or lack thereof that the employee is bound by.

Depending on the specifics of the incident or occurrence that prompts the firing.

-----------------

My opinion, based on what I know about this specific situation and the laws of the area it occurred in, is that:

Yes, they should be allowed, but it is not right according to my personal opinion on how the world should work.
 
Last edited:
Its a private business so yes they should be able to fire anyone who does something that does not line up with their beliefs.

So if they don't believe blacks should be teachers, they can fire them too, right?
 
So if they don't believe blacks should be teachers, they can fire them too, right?
If a school with an Afro-centric curriculum wanted only Black teachers, should they be forced to hire Whites?
 
Last edited:
Well Christian "schools" (if you call them that) are just corrupt centers of child abuse and quasi-moral indoctrination, so if this bitch was willing to participate in this cult and lie to kids for a living, then I guess this is Karma.

But I still hope the school gets sued out of existence, since that'll mean less kids will be affected by their crap. :)

On a side note, weddings (in the modern Western since) didn't even exist when Christianity was founded, so having sex outside of a Western wedding has nothing to do with "traditional Christian 'moral' code". Marriage in the Biblical since was just ancient arranged marriage (aka forced sex slavery, usually with girls just old enough to bleed - it wouldn't even be legal today since we have laws against pedophilia). Maybe that's why Jesus was against "marriage" (the ancient form anyway).
 
Last edited:
If a school with an Afro-centric curriculum wanted only Black teachers, should they be forced to hire Whites?

I believe they already are. I could be mistaken, but my understanding is that it's illegal for them to discriminate the same as anyone else. I believe that they're required to use the same hiring practices as any other school.
 
I believe they already are. I could be mistaken, but my understanding is that it's illegal for them to discriminate the same as anyone else. I believe that they're required to use the same hiring practices as any other school.

(Serious response this time)

If an organization wants to have stupid rules, then I don't see why the govt should dictate to it how to run itself. No one is forced to go there (and I don't blame them for wanting to stay away). For example, some cities have laws banning smoking in bars because they say it's "bad for the customers' health". Well, if the smoke bothers me, then I'll just find a different bar. They'll probably lose money for allowing smoking since most people don't smoke, so if they want to have a little smoking bar, why not let them?

On the other hand, I don't think that a school should get special rights just because it's "Christian" (they already do, what with "creationist" ciriculum for example, but that's a different topic). If what the school did violates an already existing "discrimination law", then I don't think the school should be exempt from being sued.

Personally I'd have never worked for a wackjob cult like that in the first place.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom