Nelli Parisenkova, a Christian childcare teacher based in California, has filed a lawsuit against her former employer after being fired and mistreated for not reading LGBT books to children. She refused to read them due to religious objections. Parisenkova has worked for four years at Studio City’s Bright Horizons Children’s Center where she taught children within the age of five. She is being represented by the lawyers associated with the Thomas More Society. The lawsuit includes multiple charges against Bright Horizons Children’s Center and its employees including wrongful termination, religion-based harassment, failure to accommodate, unlawful retaliation, etc. Bright Horizons was established in 1986 and has hundreds of locations in different parts of the world with over 26,000 employees.
Fox News reports:
A California childcare teacher sued her former employer last week after she was allegedly terminated and mistreated because of her religious objection to reading books to children featuring same-sex couples.
Nelli Parisenkova, who is being represented by lawyers with the Thomas More Society, worked four years at Bright Horizons Children’s Center in Studio City and cared for children aged five and younger, according to the complaint she filed Thursday in the Superior Court of California.
The lawsuit claims Parisenkova was aware of such LGBT-themed material at the Studio City location of the largest childcare company in the U.S., but at first had not been required to read them. Founded in 1986, Bright Horizons has hundreds of locations worldwide and employs more than 26,000 people.
Parisenkova’s situation changed in April when Katy Callas, who serves as director of the location, learned of Parisenkova’s religious objections to the material, refused her request for a religious accommodation and ultimately created a hostile work environment that led to her termination, according to the complaint.
The complaint explained how for Parisenkova, who is “a devout Christian,” reading such books to children “would violate her religious beliefs and constitute promotion of intimate relationships and choices that are contrary to the teachings of her faith.”
“Parisenkova formally requested a religious accommodation from Bright Horizons that aligned with her prior informally granted request. Bright Horizons responded by categorically denying the request,” the suit said, which goes on to claim Bright Horizons “made no attempt whatsoever to determine whether a reasonable accommodation could be reached.”
“Instead, Bright Horizons issued a counseling memo with false statements, terminated her life insurance benefits, required her to complete retraining in diversity issues, and encouraged her to resign her position,” the suit alleged. “Ms. Parisenkova could not return to work without an accommodation; so, Bright Horizons terminated her employment.”
The suit slaps Bright Horizons and its staff with several charges, including unlawful retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination and harassment, religion-based harassment, wrongful termination, failure to accommodate, unlawful constructive discharge and disparate treatment.
Read the full article here.
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