Teacher Fired For Giving Student Bible

A teacher in New Jersey was fired after he gave a student a bible.

The teacher, Walt Tutka, has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the Phillipsburg School District saying that he was a victim of religious discrimination.

Tutka writes in his complaint: “I believe that I have been discriminated against in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and retaliated against regarding same.”

According to the Warren Reporter, the incident occurred last October when Tutka was substituting a school in New Jersey. The students were standing in line and Tutka said to the last student: “The first shall be the last, and the last shall be the first.”

Tutka claims that the student repeatedly inquired about the line and Tutka told them that it came from a passage in the bible. When the student said that he had never read the bible Tutka gave him the pocket sized edition that he was carrying.

Yahoo News reports that Tutka is being represented by a team from the Liberty Institute, a conservative Christian advocacy and legal defense organization. Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Institute, said: “It is shocking that the school district has forced Walt to file a complaint with the EEOC for religious discrimination … All Walt did was respond to a student’s intellectual curiosity and the school district suspended and then terminated him.”

Sasser said that the Phillipsburg School District has not been cooperating with requests for emails and other documents about Tutka’s relationship. Superintendent Chando said that he was not able to comment on the complaint at this time.