Former Intern Sues Ex-Employer After Being Fired for Sharing Her Faith
by Jim Brown
March 1, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A former graduate student at California State University-Long Beach claims she lost an internship because she is a Christian and unwilling to hide her faith."Straight-A" student Jacqueline Escobar has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), where she interned in hopes of completing her master's degree in social work. Escobar claims she was terminated from her internship position for refusing to refrain from sharing her faith with co-workers during her lunch break.
The former DCFS intern says she was asked to sign a document agreeing not to talk about her faith with fellow workers during lunch. That document, she contends, included a statement that acknowledged her "inability to separate her religious beliefs from her role" as an intern.
Escobar says DCFS officials also looked down on her for changing into a Christian t-shirt after signing out from work one day. Her attorney, Brad Dacus of the Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), sees her case as a clear-cut example of religious discrimination. PJI has filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Children and Family Services on the young woman's behalf.
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Brad Dacus |
"This social service agency, DCFS, has no business telling an intern that she cannot share her faith during non-working hours," Dacus says. "We are confident that this federal court will cut off this muzzle, which has been used to silence our client."The attorney notes that California State-Long Beach was going to expel Escobar from her graduate program after DCFS terminated her internship. However, he says PJI convinced the university to allow the graduate student to intern with another employer instead.
Dacus believes the social services agency's treatment of its former intern was not only unfair but unlawful. "No employee, particularly one working for a public employer, should ever be fired or let go simply because they share their faith or discuss their faith during break time or during lunch time," he says.
In fact, the PJI spokesman notes, Escobar's right to talk about her faith at work while off-the-clock "is protected by Title VII of the federal civil rights statute." That is why, he points out, "we at the Pacific Justice Institute are consequently representing her without charge in this major federal lawsuit."
Dacus says he hopes Escobar's suit will set a strong precedent for similar cases in the United States involving hostility toward Christian employees or attempts to deny individuals' religious freedom in the workplace.
Jim Brown, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
