Two religious discrimination suits have recently been filed against governmental agencies in Texas.
Yesterday the Associated Press reported that two former employees of the University of Texas at Arlington have filed suit in federal district court claiming that their dismissal by the University constitutes religious discrimination. Last March, after learning that a male employee was having problems with a female co-worker, the two employees stayed after work to pray for the woman-- who was on vacation. They met at her office cubicle, prayed for her, and-- in the religious tradition of one of them-- dabbed olive oil on the door frame of the cubicle. The University, saying that it has been upheld by the Texas Workforce Commission and the Texas Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said: "praying, shouting and/or chanting over a co-workers personal and professional belongings without her knowledge and consent constitutes harassment of a fellow co-worker. In addition, rubbing this co-worker's cubicle with oil is blatant disregard for university property, both of which are identified as behavior that is grounds for dismissal."
Meanwhile, in Austin, KVUE News reports that a former police officer has filed a religious discrimination suit against the city's former police chief and three other officers. Derek Howard, attorney representing former officer Ramon Perez, said that Perez was fired in April 2005 "for refusing to use a taser on an older, physically-compromised individual who was easily restrained with less force, and second, because he was a Christian fundamentalist who home-schooled his children."
