Discrimination suit lost because of Utah jury's bias, teacher says

A former South Sevier High School English teacher, who lost her gender and religion discrimination suit against the Sevier School District late Monday, says she lost because of a "deeply imbedded" bias held by some Utahns against professional women and people who are not members of the LDS faith.

"I am extremely disappointed in the outcome of this trial," Jensen said in a written statement released Tuesday. "Despite warnings I received early on that it was impossible to get a fair-minded jury in this state, I believed in the goodness of Utahns."

After hearing six days of testimony and deliberating for almost 10 hours Tuesday, a jury of four men and eight women determined Jensen could not prove that Sevier School District officials fired her from her three-year teaching position because of her gender and religion.

Jensen claimed that after rumors were spread of her being a witch, that she "prefers the dark side" and that she is a coffee drinker, the school board and district superintendant Brent Thorne fired her for no apparent reason and told her she could never work at the district again.

Jensen was only one of two full-time teachers at her school who was not LDS. Both of them were English teachers and both teachers were fired at the same time. Jensen had pointed to complaints from parents against her that she was teaching other religious belief systems while teaching literature. Those concerns were brought up by the school board before she was fired.

However, attorneys for the school district said district officials were concerned about the high school's dropping language scores on SAT tests. Thorne also testified he was concerned about Jensen when he saw her taking a coffee break when a teacher's seminar was in session. Jensen claimed Thorne was bothered by her drinking coffee, which LDS members are discouraged from doing, but Thorne denied that.

Jensen also brought forth allegations that women were treated poorly and relegated for the most part to teaching lower grades in the district.

But in the end, the jury didn't see it her way. Jurors declined an offer to explain the reasons behind their decision after the verdict was read.

"What has become evident to me is that when biases are deeply imbedded in a person's mind, no amount of evidence can penetrate it," Jensen wrote in her statement.