Staff Report
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Hollister
A San Benito County jury rewarded a former Willow Grove School District teacher $200,000 Wednesday after the woman complained she was wrongfully fired by the district in March 2009, according to a press release from the woman’s attorneys.
The Willow Grove School District was ordered to pay the amount, $170,000 in lost wages and $30,000 in emotional distress, after the 12-person jury voted that the district violated California anti-discrimination laws when they fired Cherub Berlanga after she announced she was pregnant to the school.
Berlanga filed the lawsuit in June 2009 against the district because of alleged sex discrimination and violation of the California Pregnancy Disability Leave Law.
In November 2008, Berlanga told her class and the district that she was pregnant. Four months later, in March, the district’s school board decided not to bring her back, according to a press release from Polaris Law Group, the law firm representing Berlanga. In a March 2009 school board meeting, parents from 15 of her 17 students complained to the district and asked them to reconsider her termination.
Berlanga was rewarded tenure after one year by the district but after she announced she was pregnant, the district asked her to sign a form to put her back on probation, said Berlanga’s attorney Bill Marder. When she did, the board decided not to bring her back for another year.
“She was very popular after her first year so they made her permanent,” Marder said. “After she announced she was pregnant, they made her sign a document to go back to on probation.”
During the three-day trial, the district argued it fired Berlanga because the district wanted to go in a “new direction,” according to the press release. Jurors heard testimony from the former school Principal Carol Brummet, former Secretary of the Board Peggy Bettencourt and former Trustee Sandy Patterson.
The district also argued that she shouldn’t have been given tenure after one year and it was a clerical error, Marder said.
Phone calls to the school district’s board president Carole Greenwold-Aldrich were not returned before press time. Court records were not available Monday due to the holiday.
Look for more on the lawsuit in the Pinnacle on Friday.
