A former substitute teacher in New Jersey says he was fired for giving a student a Bible.
Walt Tutka is suing the Philipsburg School District, alleging discrimination.
His wrongful termination complaint, filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Newark, contends officials fired him on religious grounds.
“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,” Tutka said in the complaint.
The longtime substitute teacher says he gave a pocket-sized Bible to the student after he asked him about a verse he’d quoted.
“All Walt did was respond to a student’s intellectual curiosity and the school district suspended and then terminated him,” said Hiram Sasser, director of litigation for the Liberty Institute, who is working with a New Jersey law firm representing Tutka.
