• Salem City School District in Ohio reverses suspension of teacher Shawnae Carlisle.
• District agrees to allow unpaid leave for religious holidays after legal pressure.
• First Liberty Institute says the decision respects religious rights of employees.

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An Ohio school district has agreed to allow one of its employees to take unpaid leave to observe religious holidays after facing the threat of legal action for suspending the employee earlier in the school year. 

In a statement published Tuesday, the religious liberty law firm First Liberty Institute announced that the Salem City School District in Salem, Ohio, agreed to grant one of its teachers, Shawnae Carlisle, an accommodation allowing her to take unpaid leave to observe religious holy days after receiving a letter from the legal organization.

The school district’s decision comes five months after it suspended Carlisle, who teaches science at Southeast Elementary School, when she requested unpaid leave to observe a holy day.

First Liberty Institute identifies Carlisle as a member of the Church of God who celebrates the Feast of Tabernacles each fall and four additional religious observances throughout the school year. Carlisle had regularly requested and received time off to observe the religious holidays throughout her 15-year teaching career, always making sure a substitute teacher was available to cover her class in advance. 

That changed in October, when she was suspended for five days after taking time off to observe the Feast of Tabernacles despite the school district’s denial of her request. As she had in the past, Carlisle ensured a substitute was available to cover her classes while she was away. 

First Liberty Institute argued that school district’s reasoning "did not comport with its treatment of other teachers in the school,” describing the school district’s actions as “arbitrary and inconsistent.”

The legal group sent a demand letter to the Salem City School District, prompting it to reverse course. 

“We are grateful that after receiving our letter about Ms. Carlisle’s religious liberty rights, the Salem City School District reversed its prior suspension of Ms. Carlisle for observing religious holy days and instead agreed to accommodate her religious observances going forward,” said First Liberty Senior Counsel Cliff Martin. “Salem City School District’s actions demonstrate how all school districts can and should respect their religious employees.” 

Ben Flowers, an attorney at the law firm Ashbrook Byrne Kresge Flowers LLC who represented Carlisle along with First Liberty Institute, said that “teaching and faith are important to Ms. Carlisle."

"No one should be forced to violate their religious beliefs in order to keep their job, and we are glad that with this new religious accommodation, she will not have to choose between the two," Flower said. 

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/ohio-school-district-agrees-to-teachers-religious-accommodation.html