40-years ago, pregnant teachers fired in Cedar Rapids led to change in law

CEDAR RAPIDS — The Rev. Bill Cotton remembers thinking a complaint brought before him at the Cedar Rapids Civil Rights Commission in 1972 could easily be resolved by just talking with the school district.

Two teachers said they had been ousted because they were pregnant.

'The School Board said no and ignored the commission,' Cotton, a retired United Methodist minister who was the agency's first director. 'So, we took them to court, but Judge William Eads threw it out.'

So the Iowa Civil Rights Commission and Roxanne Conlin, an Iowa assistant attorney general at the time, took up the fight. They argued Cedar Rapids Community School District v. Parrall the way to the Iowa Supreme Court — and won. On March 19, 1975, justices ruled that a school district requirement that teachers can't teach after five months of pregnancy was sexual discrimination.

Cotton has written a book, 'Iowa Roots vol. 1, Ruminations on Iowa's Uncommon People,' which includes his time at the commission and the historic Parr case.

Conlin, a Des Moines lawyer, said it's hard to believe that the government agency didn't see it as gender discrimination to fire a teacher for being pregnant.

'The Iowa Supreme Court has always been for extending rights and protecting people,' she said. 'This is something we as Iowans should have great pride in.'

U.S. Attorney Kevin Techau asked Cotton and Conlin to talk about the landmark case in a forum Thursday recognizing Women's History Month and the 40th anniversary of the court case. Lawyers and officials and staff who work in the U.S. District Courthouse and community members attended.

'The reason they had to quit teaching at five months pregnancy is because (the district) didn't want kids to see it,' Conlin said. 'They thought the kids would ask questions that teachers didn't want to answer.'

Conlin said this reasoning about pregnant women also occurred in other fields at that time. Businesses used 'made up' reasons as if protecting pregnant women so they would stay home, she said.

'Protecting these women for helping them support and feed their children,' Conlin said sarcastically.

According to the lawsuit, Joan Parr, a language arts teacher at Harding Junior High School, was fired April 10, 1972, in accordance with a 1970 School Board regulation. She was just two months shy of completing a two-year probationary period.

Judy McCarthy, a physical education instructor at Washington High School, was asked temporarily to leave her position May 10, 1972, for the same reason. She had completed her probationary period, which entitled her to be reinstated.

Maternity leave regulations at the time laid out the policy:

• It could be granted to any 'married staff member' who had completed the probationary period of teaching and had the recommendation of a supervisor or principal.

•-If granted, the staff member would be allowed to return at the beginning of the upcoming academic year.

• The staff member was required to notify the administration no later than the third month of pregnancy.

Conlin said McCarthy was allowed to go back to work, but was put on the substitute list until she had the baby and made only half her salary.

Parr continued to teach in Iowa but then moved to Kansas, Conlin said.

A year after the Parr decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a claim that an employer's policy excluding pregnancy from its disability benefits plan didn't violate 1964 Civil Rights Act's prohibition on sex discrimination.

However, two years later, Congress passed the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act that negated that decision.

Conlin said what's even more surprising is this kind of discrimination continues today. She's now defending a woman, Karen McQuistion, who is a Clinton firefighter and she wasn't allowed to go on light duty during her pregnancy. She is the only female firefighter in the department.

'It's a real danger — being exposed to smoke and toxic fumes — if she continued to be on regular duty,' Conlin said.

McQuistion had to take mandatory leave when she could no longer get her firefighter equipment fastened around her stomach, Conlin said. She is suing based on the fact that she wasn't allowed to go on light duty. They are waiting on a ruling from the Iowa Supreme Court.

'If we succeed, it will change a lot of policies,' Conlin said.