Work ‘prayer meeting’ leads to dismissals, lawsuit
August 10, 2010 by Taylor HanniganPosted in: From the Courts, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
After performing a prayer ritual that bordered on an exorcism, two university employees were fired. Then they sued.
Doug Maples and Evelyn Knight, co-workers at the University of Texas at Arlington, didn’t always get along. In fact, Maples once brought Knight to tears in front of other co-workers, calling her “a really mean person.”
Two of those other co-workers were Evelyne Shatkin and Linda Shiflett, and they also had trouble working with Knight.
Shatkin and Maples came up with a plan: One day after work, when Knight was not around, they would go to Knight’s cubicle and pray. Shifflett liked the idea enough to join them.
One day after work, at about 5:30, the three met at Knight’s cubicle to pray. Shatkin apparently led the ritual, rubbing olive oil on the doorway to Knight’s cubicle and loudly commanding the “vicious evil dogs” to “get the hell out.”
When a supervisor got wind of the get-together, Shatkin and Shifflett were fired. They’ve sued, claiming discrimination based on their religious beliefs.
In the latest development in the case, the court denied the university’s motion for pretrial judgment. At this stage of the case, the pair have presented enough evidence of religious bias to go forward with their claims, and it’s not clear whether they were let go because of their religious beliefs.
Cite: Shatkin v. University of Texas at Arlington.
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Tags: employment, religious freedom, University of Texas at Arlington
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August 20th, 2010 at 4:33 pm
If the article’s description of the events is correct, then the two do seem to be victims of religious discrimination, based on the statement, “When a supervisor got wind …” If they were, in fact, fired because a supervisor learned that they had prayed for a coworker, then they were clearly discriminated against.
September 5th, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Yeah, they should have been fired, not just two, but all three.
They were practicing their “religion” at the workplace in someone else’s space. Allowing this kind of “ceremony” would give them the right to do this any and every where at the job site. And acceptance would have meant any sect could practice their religious rites at the work place. That would have ticked the “witches” off had anyone done the same for their space.
But most of all, these folks are just too dumb to be paid with my taxpayer dollars.