She must Burn!

Surprise, Surprise: Jurors Say Religious Bias Not a Factor In Decision to Fire Sevier County Teacher

By Amy Seigel, 11-01-05

In Sevier County last week a jury of eight women and four men unanimously rejected Erin Jensen’s claim that the loss of her job as a sophomore English teacher in the Sevier County School District was directly related to both her religious beliefs and her gender. Despite proof of widely circulating rumors and concerns about the teacher’s “unconventional� views on such taboo subjects as Halloween and coffee drinking, Jensen’s attorneys were unable to convince jurors that bias—religious or otherwise—had anything to do with the District’s decision not to renew her contract for the upcoming (2002-2003) school year. Instead, the District was able to claim that their decision to fire Jensen had to do only with increased concerns about her ability to teach grammar and declining test scores. Furthermore, because Jensen was a “provisional employee,� the superintendent was not required to give a reason for selecting her as part of the mandatory staff reductions.

Before I let my own bias be heard (perhaps it’s too late for that?), let me give you a few of the facts as reported by the Salt Lake Tribune.

1. It seems clear that rumors about Jensen’s religious beliefs were indeed coming to a head in the weeks and months preceding her dismissal. Minutes from a Sevier District Board meeting in which members voted to uphold the recommendation for Jensen’s layoff contained comments from Superintendent Brent Thorne regarding a coffee run she made during a training seminar, as well as further notations about how “She [Jensen] also believes in witchcraft and paints her windows in her classroom black. Halloween is her favorite holiday and she doesn't hide the fact she prefers the dark side.� Let it be noted, however, that Thorne and another district official later deleted these “biased� comments from the minutes for fear that the juxtaposition might give people the wrong impression. While he was at it, Thorne decided it might be prudent to check the minutes taken during the past eight or nine years for other such “inaccuracies.�

2. While the Tribune did not provide any specific numbers or pieces of evidence, it appears as though the real reasons given for Jensen’s dismissal had to do only with concerns about her ability to teach certain elements of the core curriculum (specifically, grammar) and her students’ declining scores on the SAT language test. However, the former South Sevier High Principal Russell Peterson testified that he never met with Jensen to discuss concerns about failing scores, and that, in fact, the lower scores were a department-wide problem and not directly attributable to Jensen’s teaching. Furthermore, Peterson admitted that he gave Jensen good reviews during her years teaching at the Monroe school, and Jensen’s record showed that she was voted teacher of the year at least once.

3. For Jensen’s replacement, superintendent Thorne did indeed choose a male teacher who is reportedly active in the LDS church. Whether or not he is more or less qualified than Jensen is a matter of debate.

With these details of the case out in the open, I would now like to offer my own personal suggestion for Jensen if she wishes to pursue an appeal:

Hey Erin, if you don’t feel as though your bias suit was judged fairly in a Utah court don’t blame it on some LDS conspiracy—use another, better scapegoat—President Bush’s No Child Left Behind. Of course, given the political climate in Utah, this may be just as much of an uphill battle, but it’s worth a try, right?

Okay, this may sound a tad glib, but I’m dead serious. In looking at the Salt Lake Tribune’s continuing coverage of Jensen’s civil suit, the one key fact the Sevier School District can cling to as proof that Jensen was not fired on the basis of her religion (or lack thereof) or gender is the vague notion of “declining test scores.� One (surely unintentional?) result of the President’s No Child Left Behind legislation is that it provides administrators with plenty of opportunities for gathering “hard evidence� of teachers’ competence. Surely if the SAT language scores for Erin Jensen’s students went down it must mean she’s a lousy teacher that any administrator would be well-justified in kicking to the curb. Therefore, despite proof of rumors circulating throughout the school community about Jensen’s religious beliefs, despite the fact that her replacement is a male Mormon, and despite the fact that the principal himself admitted to having given Jensen good reviews and that declining test scores were a school-wide problem, she is deserving of her fate. I have to wonder, yet again, what kind of precedent does this set? Did no one stop to think that perhaps in the three whole years Jensen taught at South Sevier High three entirely different groups of students with entirely different aptitudes for English and for taking standardized tests might have passed through her sophomore English classes? Clearly not, because NCLB tells us we don’t have to and that, in fact, we should not consider such variables.

Listen, Erin, if you want to blame somebody for the loss of your court case, aside from the ladies and gentlemen of the jury, try the federal government. Not that I think you’ll have any better luck, mind you, but you might at least realize that this problem is bigger than you could ever have imagined. Not that this is any reconciliation for losing your job, but hey, the jury did what they could. After all, we all know that unlike human beings, standardized test scores never lie.

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