A transgender teacher fired by a Catholic school district in Alberta, Canada will pursue a Human Rights comlaint rather than accept a hefty cash settlement offer:
Jan Buterman says he will proceed with his complaint against Greater St. Albert Catholic Schools, which wrote him a letter in 2008 praising his abilities but dismissing him for not being aligned with the values of the Catholic Church.
Buterman, who was a substitute teacher in St. Albert, just north of Edmonton, says the publicly funded school district can’t buy his silence with an offer of $78,000 cash or a one-year teaching job.
“I don’t want to be muzzled,” says Buterman, who has worked as a teacher elsewhere since he was fired. “They don’t want me to talk about the fact that they, as an employer, claiming authority from the Catholic Church, have discriminated against me because of my medical status as a transsexual person.”
Buterman says he expects the Catholic school board will ask the Alberta Human Rights Commission to dismiss his complaint.
Said Buterman: "People like us have all experienced job harassment, job discrimination, job loss — it is a common theme in the community. The only difference between me and everyone else is that I got mine in writing. I have no interest in pretending it didn’t happen."
