Opinion ID: 390862
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 2
3 On March 22, 1971, the Board revised its then existing maternity leave regulations. The revised regulations were set out in the school district's Personnel Handbook of 1971. These regulations remained in effect until January 9, 1973, when the Board adopted a new maternity leave policy. 2 4 The pre-1973 maternity leave policy contained six essential features. 3 First, a teacher who became pregnant was required to notify the Board of her pregnancy at the beginning of the fourth month of pregnancy and was automatically placed on leave at the end of the sixth month of pregnancy. Second, the maternity leave of absence expired three semesters from the date of commencement of leave. Third, all teachers who intended to return to teaching at the beginning of the first semester of the opening of a school session were required to notify the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel (the Superintendent), in writing, no later than June 1st of their desire to return. Fourth, the Superintendent would reinstate a teacher at the expiration of the three semester period after submission and approval of physician's certificate of fitness to teach, but the Board was not required to return a teacher from maternity leave to her former school. Fifth, a teacher could request to be returned from maternity leave prior to the expiration of three semesters, but approval of such a request was within the Superintendent's discretion. Sixth, maternity leave was without salary and teachers on maternity leave were not allowed to use their accumulated sick leave. 5 The Board also maintained a separate policy for absence occasioned by personal illness or emergency. 4 Under this sick leave policy, each teacher was credited ten working days per year for sick leave, and the unused days of sick leave would accrue without limit for each school session. A teacher could use any number of current and accrued sick leave days for any personal illness, but not for disability due to pregnancy. An employee expecting to be absent for more than ten work days was required to notify the district in writing and submit a statement from a physician attesting to the reason for the absence and its probable duration. Upon approval of the employee's sick leave request by the Board's doctor, the employee was allowed to return to work on the date his or her doctor certified that the employee would be fit to return. 6 B. The Desegregation Program and its Effect on the Return of Teachers from Maternity Leave 7 During the 1972-73 school year, the New Orleans public school system was undergoing a major faculty readjustment, occasioned by its history of student and faculty racial segregation, that affected the Board's actions with respect to the return of teachers from maternity leave. On October 11, 1967, in the case of Earl Benjamin Bush v. Orleans Parish School Board, 205 F.Supp. 893, the district court for the Eastern District of Louisiana issued an order mandating desegregation of students and faculty in the New Orleans public school system. 5 8 After taking some steps toward desegregating the faculty of its school system, the Board, on June 10, 1972, adopted a resolution which established a program for implementing the court's order. 6 The Board's resolution ordered, inter alia, an involuntary transfer of approximately 1,500 teachers of both races to different teaching positions effective August 28, 1972. About one-third of the entire teaching corps was involved in this involuntary transfer program. 9 During the period of implementation of the desegregation order, the school district experienced significant student attrition. 7 Because the number of teachers hired for any given year was tied directly to student enrollment, decreasing student enrollment forced the elimination of over 340 teaching positions for the 1972-73 school year. Faced with this surplus of teachers, the Board decided to retain as relief teachers those teachers for whom no teaching posts were available. These relief teachers received full pay and acted as substitutes when necessary. No surplus teachers were terminated or placed on forced leave due to lack of vacancies. But teachers desiring to return from maternity leave prior to the three semester limit were refused reinstatement to the payroll as regular or relief teachers for varying lengths of time based on the lack of teaching vacancies. 10 C. The Plaintiff Teachers and the Development of the Suit 11 On December 8, 1972, seven black female New Orleans public school teachers Barbara S. Clanton, Marion Davis, Joyce J. Joseph, Carolyn Streams, Verna Jones, Yvette Monette and Kathleen Wooten filed suit against the Board and the individual defendants in federal district court. While the facts of the teachers' pregnancies and the actions taken by the Board with respect to their maternity leaves differed, the teachers had four common characteristics: (1) prior to her pregnancy, each had been a New Orleans public elementary or secondary school teacher; (2) each had become pregnant and had gone on maternity leave before the beginning of the 1972-73 school year; (3) each had requested to return from maternity leave sometime during the 1972-73 school year and had submitted an approved certificate of physical fitness to return to work; and (4) the Superintendent deferred reinstatement beyond the date each teacher was willing and physically able to return to work. 12 The teachers complained, inter alia, of the Board's actions in (1) requiring them to go on leave at the end of their sixth month of pregnancy, (2) refusing them accumulated sick leave benefits during the leave of absence, and (3) refusing them reinstatement although they were willing and fit to return. They asserted that the Board's actions constituted discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and pregnancy violative of their rights under the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. They requested preliminary and permanent injunctive relief, declaratory relief, damages (including backpay and sick leave pay), and attorneys' fees under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983. The teachers also sought to represent a class consisting of all New Orleans public school teachers who had experienced discrimination by virtue of the Board's maternity leave policies. 13 In answer to the teachers' complaint, the Board argued that none of its maternity leave policies were unconstitutional. In addition, the Board defended its failure to return the teachers to work on the dates they were willing and fit to return on the basis that some of the teachers failed to meet the June 1st deadline for notification of intent to return to work and that, due to the elimination of teacher positions brought about by the desegregation program, no vacancies in teaching positions existed on the dates upon which the teachers sought to return. 14 On January 9, 1973, the Board adopted a new maternity leave policy. 8 On two occasions in January and February, 1973, the district court denied the teachers' request for a preliminary injunction. 15 In the spring of 1973, two teachers whose claims were very similar to those of the original plaintiffs, Zeola Kelly and Annie Davis, were allowed to enter the lawsuit as plaintiff intervenors. On July 13, 1973, the teachers filed an amended complaint which asserted a cause of action under Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., based on the factual allegations contained in the original complaint. On May 8, 1974, the district court denied the teachers' motions for class certification and summary judgment. In the pretrial order filed on July 26, 1976, the parties stipulated to the dismissal of Joyce Joseph from the action on the basis that her claim for backpay had been satisfied. Thus, as of July 26, 1976, eight teachers remained in the lawsuit as individual plaintiffs, each of whose claims involved the pre-1973 maternity leave policy. 16 On August 20, 1976, Patricia F. Lyons moved to intervene as a plaintiff in the suit. Unlike the complaints of the other teachers, Lyons' complaint was based on the Board's post-1973 maternity leave policy, since her pregnancy occurred in the latter part of 1975. On the same day, the teachers renewed their motion for class certification, contending that they were proper class representatives for both the group of teachers whose maternity leaves were taken under the pre-1973 policy and those teachers whose maternity leaves were taken under the post-1973 policy. On September 28, 1976, the district court denied Lyons' motion to intervene and the teachers' motion for class certification. 17 The claims of the eight individual teachers went to trial before the judge on October 18, 1976. In the main, the evidence introduced in the case was documentary. 18