A former worker at a high school in Asbury Park NJ recently settled her wrongful termination lawsuit against the Asbury Park school district.
The plaintiff in the employment discrimination case was a 38-year-old woman from Neptune, New Jersey. She was fired by the school district at the end of the school year in 2013, with district officials reportedly opting to let her contract lapse without renewing it.
The Neptune NJ resident had been hired
by the Asbury Park school district in September 2011 for a role as a specialist with Jobs for America’s Graduates, a national non-profit group that is dedicated to preventing at-risk youths from dropping out of school.
According to the plaintiff’s personal injury lawyers, she was an exemplary employee who received nothing but stellar performance reviews until she informed her employer that she would be having a baby. At that point, said the plaintiff’s legal team, her bosses began to discriminate against her. The employment discrimination included negative performance reviews of the employee’s work at Asbury Park High School, as well as emails from her supervisor that were highly critical of the job she was doing. Moreover, the plaintiff allegedly received heavy doses of criticism even as her non-pregnant co-workers were not disciplined.
At some point, the plaintiff’s bosses decided to transfer her to another school in the district. This school was attended primarily by students who had behavioral and discipline issues, making it a particularly unfavorable destination for most young teachers. The plaintiff asked her employers to reinstate her to her old job at the Asbury Park high school, not the alternative school where she was transferred. The plaintiff provided statements from doctors who examined her and said that her pregnancy was “high risk,” with both her health and the health of her baby being potentially jeopardized by her work at the alternative school.
The plaintiff was later fired by the Asbury Park school district – a firing that the plaintiff alleged was based solely on her status as a pregnant woman.
Now it appears that the plaintiff will at least receive some financial compensation in the case. New Jersey Civil Settlements, a service that collects records of NJ civil lawsuits against government agencies, initially reported that the plaintiff had reached a settlement with the Asbury Park school district. The terms of the civil settlement are reportedly as follows: the plaintiff will receive damages in the amount of $50,000 for being wrongfully terminated from her teaching job on the basis of her pregnancy.
For more information about this personal injury case, read the following article: Ex-Asbury Park School Worker Settles Wrongful Firing Suit for $50K