Accommodating Plaintiff's request to take off every Tuesday would require Defendants to hire a substitute teacher every week, or a part-time employee to cover every Tuesday, in addition to paying Plaintiff's salary, or perhaps would require her students to sit with another teacher's class – overloading the student-teacher ratio.... [O]bliging Plaintiff's request and accommodating her religious practices in this regard would require Defendants to bear more than a de minimus cost, and as such would be an "undue hardship."
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
School Need Not Accommodate Teacher's Tuesday Sabbath
In Slocum v. Devezin, (ED LA, June 3, 2013), a Louisiana federal district court dismissed an elementary school teacher's Title VII religious accommodation lawsuit. Special education teacher Joy Slocum wanted to take time off to observe her Sabbath from 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday until 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday each week. The school refused. According to the court:
