Cranston teachers union sues School Dept. over Good Friday
By News Staff
A teachers union is suing the Cranston School Department over accusations it is preventing teachers from taking off work for Good Friday.
The Cranston Teachers’ Alliance says the School Department denied nearly 200 requests for days off for the April 3 religious holiday.
Union President Lizbeth Larkin says the lawsuit was filed Monday in Superior Court in Providence.
Larkin said the issue is partly related to snow days now affecting scheduling and over what she called a misguided effort last year to be equitable by eliminating school breaks for Jewish holidays and Good Friday.
“It is unfortunate that the Cranston Teachers’ Alliance initiated a lawsuit regarding Good Friday. Certainly, we always seek to respect our students’ and staff’s religious practices,” said Judith A. Lundsten, Superintendent of Cranston Public Schools. “From our perspective, this is about a calendar that was agreed upon and passed by the school committee nine months ago. Teachers, teacher assistants, technical assistants and bus aides have the provision in their contracts to request up to two (2) religious observance days. The contractual language states, they may be granted the day off if their, “religious observance obligations require attendance at religious services held during the school day….”
“Upon information and belief, the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah does not allow work and requires attendance at services held during the school (work) day. Based on that, the requests for the days off were granted to those who requested them. Based on information and belief, Good Friday has no required services. As a result, the request for the day off was denied for those who requested it.”
Lundsten continues, “Also, the Cranston Teachers’ Alliance actively negotiated teacher assistant, technical assistant and bus aide contracts. In those negotiations, teacher assistants, technical assistants and bus aides sought to increase their hourly wage by giving up certain paid holidays. Good Friday was one of those paid holidays; so to come back with this lawsuit is rather surprising.”
(C) WLNE-TV 2015
