A California woman was fired after her supervisor at a San Diego Christian college asked her if she was pregnant. The sin, so to speak, was not the pregnancy itself but the fact that Teri James, 29, was not married when she conceived. This violated San Diego Christian College’s “community covenant,” signed by a not yet pregnant James, which is a two-page contract asking its employees and students to abstain from drugs, alcohol and tobacco and “abusive anger, malice, jealousy, lust, sexually immoral behavior including premarital sex, adultery, pornography and homosexuality, evil desires and prejudice based on race, sex or socioeconomic status.” Well, the prejudice part is nice, at least.
James, who is herself Christian, is suing the school and being represented by Gloria Allred. Allred pointed out that the covenant “does not say that you will be fired if you do not comply.” What the school did is also likely illegal under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which “prohibit[s] sex discrimination on the basis of pregnancy.”