Vancouver's Little Flower Academy has dismissed music teacher Lisa Reimer because she is a lesbian, according to a gay rights group.
Reimer says she was told earlier this week she need not come in to work for the remainder of her one-year contract, which ends in June. The school said it would continue to pay her wage until her contract expired.
A statement from the Pride Education Network says Reimer was told by the school principal that she was professionally capable and performed well as a teacher -- but parents had raised concerns that "girls might follow Ms. Reimer's lead."
Little Flower secondary is a publicly funded religious school, PEN's Steve LeBel said in the release.
"They are clearly discriminating against Ms. Reimer on the basis of her family status and sexual orientation," he said.
"In 2010, it is absolutely unfathomable that any school would insinuate that students could be led into homosexuality by having a lesbian teacher and then fire that teacher."
Glen Hansem of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers' Association said in the release that the alleged discrimination would "never have happened in a public school."
"This case is a clear example why private schools should not receive any kind of public funding whatsoever. All teachers have the right to a safe and accepting workplace. Catholic schools should be no different."
Reimer will return to the Vancouver public school system in September. PEN says the Vancouver School Board has a policy that protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender teachers who choose to be out in the workplace.
A request for comment from Little Flower Academy had not been responded to by 1 p.m. Wednesday.
