A teacher and volleyball coach is claiming that she was fired for becoming pregnant while single.

Cathy Samford, 29, taught science at the Heritage Christian Academy near Dallas, Texas, and was also the head coach of the girl’s volleyball team. Samford says that when administrators at the school learned of her pregnancy, she was terminated from her teaching position, reports WFAA-TV.

And the school far from denies that the cause for Samford’s firing was because she was pregnant out of wedlock, and the school’s headmaster, Dr. Ron Taylor, said as a private institution it is completely within its rights to do so. Taylor said Samford violated the morals clause she signed upon condition of her employment at the school.

“The Supreme Court, as a matter of fact in the last month, has ruled 9-to-0 that a Christian school does have that right, because this is a ministry, so we have the right to have standards of conduct,” Taylor added.

Taylor is likely referring to Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which was decided in January of this year. The case did not deal with conduct, however, but the right of a teacher to sue the school over termination in violation of employment discrimination laws. The teacher had claimed she was fired because she had threatened to file an Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit, but the school claimed they were within their rights to fire her because of her medical condition because they did not classify her as a teacher but as a minister.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision that the school indeed had the right to claim a “ministerial exception” under the First Amendment.

Taylor is using similar logic, saying that because Heritage Christian employees are allowed to express and teach their religious beliefs in front of students, they are considered ministers, not teachers.

But Samford’s attorney, Colin Walsh, disagrees, and they may take legal action against the school.

“You can’t discriminate against someone who’s pregnant or has a pregnancy-related medical condition,” Walsh said. “That is both state and federal law.”

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