Source: Towfiqu Photography / Getty
The school district has declined to rehire the teacher strictly because of the photo.
BELLPORT, NY (News 12 Long Island/CNN) – A New York state middle school teacher has filed a $3 million lawsuit against her former employer.
She says she was improperly let go because of a topless photo she’d sent privately to someone she was dating.
A student somehow got hold of the photo and began circulating it, but she says that’s not her fault and that she shouldn’t be punished for it.
“That picture was never posted. How it got out is the million-dollar question,” said Lauren Miranda, the 25-year-old former Bellport Middle School math teacher.
Actually, it’s a $3 million question. Miranda is now suing the South Country School District for that amount in a gender discrimination lawsuit because she was fired over the selfie last week.
“My career has been ruined. My reputation has been tarnished. I have been stigmatized,” she said.
Miranda said she texted the photo to her partner at the time, another teacher in the district, more than two years ago.
She has no idea how a student was able to get a copy and share it.
Her attorney John Ray called what the school did discrimination.
“Any time a man has ever exposed his chest, no one has ever commented or had any problem with it whatsoever,” Ray said. “But when a woman displays her chest, as happened here, she gets fired from her job.”
In a statement, South Country’s superintendent said, “The district does not comment on active litigation.”
READ MORE: Cleveland19.com
Article Courtesy of CNN, News 12 Long Island, and WOIO Cleveland 19 News
First Picture Courtesy of skynesher and Getty Images
Second Picture Courtesy of Towfiqu Photography and Getty Images
