Lesbian Teacher Sent Home by Catholic School

A music teacher in Vancouver, Canada, says Little Flower Academy, a Catholic school, told her to stay home for the rest of the year after some parents expressed concern that she was a lesbian whose partner who had just given birth.

According to The Vancouver Sun, "Lisa Reimer announced her situation at the Vancouver school Monday through the Pride Education Network, which claimed Little Flower was discriminating against her on the basis of sexual orientation."

Pride Education Network spokesman Steve LeBel "claimed in an interview later that the school had told Reimer, who has a one-year teaching contract, not to show up at the school and that they would send marking assignments to her electronically until her contract ends in June," reported the Sun.

The school principal allegedly told Reimer that some parents were worried that "the girls might follow Ms. Reimer's lead."

Reimer, on leave from her regular job with the public school district, was hired to teach music and instruct the all-girls choir at Little Flower for one year. Her absence means that students will have no music instruction.

While the human rights code protects teachers in public schools, the status of teachers in faith-based schools remains in doubt, the Sun reports.