A former Leimert Park Catholic school teacher who sued the Archdiocese of Los Angeles alleging she was fired for being pregnant and unwed admitted Tuesday she was often late to class and used her cell phone in the classroom.
However, Kourtney Liggins said her tardiness was due in part to the nursing of her newborn daughter and any phone conversations she had in the classroom were directly related to inquiries by parents about their students.
Liggins sued the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Transfiguration School and then-Pastor Michael Tang in September 2013. She says she was seven months pregnant in the summer of 2012 when Tang allegedly told her that her pregnancy would “morally corrupt” impressionable teens at the school.
When Liggins, now 48, complained to a bishop and a school official, they did little, according to her lawsuit, which alleges wrongful termination in violation of public policy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and defamation.
Tang previously testified that he and current principal Evelyn Rickenbacker jointly decided in June 2013 not to renew Liggins’ contract for the coming school year based in part on complaints by parents about her tardiness and phone calls.
Liggins said her father was the first to receive the Transfiguration letter notifying her of her firing. She said the emotional impact on her was immediate.
“It was devastating,” Liggins testified Tuesday during the Los Angeles Superior Court trial. “I had no employment and I still had to take care of things that still needed being taken care of.”
Liggins, who has older children from another relationship, said she could only afford to have one of them continue in Catholic school and the rest had to attend public schools. She also said she struggled to find work, doing some substitute teaching and taking other jobs outside the teaching field.
Liggins said that before she was fired, she wrote Transfiguration’s human resources department to voice her complaints about Tang. But the bishop told Liggins, “It is very difficult to get rid of pastors and I should pray on it,” she said.
Liggins, who repeatedly said she believed she was being singled out by Tang and Rickenbacker, testified that she hoped putting her complaints in writing would succeed where her verbal protests failed.
“I saw a pattern developing and I really thought that by putting it in writing it would stop,” Liggins said.
Liggins said she notified her sister, Michele Yerima — who was Transfiguration School principal until her March 2013 resignation — that nursing her daughter was the reason being her being late to class. Liggins also said that while her phone calls were work-related, she believed it would be proper to take a personal call if it was an emergency.
Liggins said she continued to attend Mass at Transfiguration Church for a time after she was fired because the church had been a part of her life for so long. But she said the stress and memories ultimately forced her to start going to another parish.