Cranston Teachers' Union Sues after Good Friday Leave Requests are Denied

The union that represents teachers in Cranston has filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract and violations of civil and religious freedom rights after teachers who requested Good Friday off this year were denied religious leave by the Cranston School District.

Liz Larkin, president of the Cranston Teachers’ Alliance — the teachers’ union — said that teachers were under the impression that they could use two days of leave each year to observe religious holidays.

In past years, Cranston, a predominantly Catholic community, did not schedule religious holidays into the school calendar, including both Christian and Jewish holidays.

This year, the School Committee approved a 2014-2015 school calendar that did not include those days as holidays. All three contracts between the CTA and School Committee include a provision to give each employee up to two days of religious leave per school year and some employees used time for Jewish Holy Days in the fall.

But when “a number of Christians notified the Cranston School Department that they were taking religious leave to observe Good Friday, their leave was denied. The denial of religious leave triggered the lawsuit,” Larkin said.

“If the Cranston School Committee wants to open schools on important religious holidays, they must honor and respect their employees’ religious beliefs” Larkin said. “I wish they had not opened school on the Jewish Holy days and Good Friday, but since they made that decision they should not be telling Christians of all denominations that Good Friday is not important enough to merit a religious leave day.”

The union objected to the calendar changes and Larkin said “There was not any significant parental or public input in the decision to hold school on these days. I hope they reconsider their stance when they adopt a calendar for the next school year.”

In addition to alleging a breach of contract, the lawsuit cites the discriminatory denial of religious leave as a breach of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (42-80.1) which declares that “a governmental authority may not restrict a person’s free exercise of religion.”

By discriminating against those trying to observe the most solemn day of the Christian calendar, the CTA also alleges that the Cranston School Committee violated the Rhode Island Civil Rights Act and the Rhode Island Fair Employment Practices Act.

School officials would not comment on the lawsuit, which was filed in Providence Superior Court on Monday.

About 200 teachers had requested the leave days and it is likely that the school officials were concerned about dealing with so many teacher absences on one day. It also is reasonable to speculate that the number of snow days affecting the school district played a role in the district’s reluctance to grant the leave requests.

Teachers were also upset by the denial letters, which requested they show proof of attending a religious service.