attendance and maternity leave

[pdoggrl]

Hello,
I live in California and I am a school nurse in a small town Delano. The high school I work for has a principal who is a full-time pastor and a full-time principal. I was pregnant with my second child and I went on Maternity leave for 2 1/2 months (I had a c-section). I returned to work and within four months I was given an evaluation and was told that it was not working out because of attendance. Within the four months that I returned, I only missed 6 days due to child's illnesses or illnesses related to me. Is there any law protecting me?
The principal want to replace me with a board member's wife or relative. Almost all the staff are either his cousins or in-laws.

[LConnell]

It sounds like you may be the potential victim of discrimination. You can read about discrimination in California at: http://www.caag.state.ca.us/publicat...rights/ch1.htm

[pdoggrl]

Hi Lillian
I was told that it didn't matter since I work in a school district and if I am not tenured (this would have been my second year) they can let go of me but how can they let go of me based on my attendance when I just came back from maternity leave. IThey had to let me go this year because if not then next year I will be tenured and they will not be able to let me go. Plus the principal wants a relative or a church member of his church or the board member's wife in my position. I am also starting to think that since I am not fluent in spanish but fluent in Tagalog (Delano is a city with population of Hispanics and Filipinos) he wants someone fluent in Spanish and everyone in my building speaks spanish

[LConnell]

California provides for additional time off provisions for pregnancy. Your missing six days of work other than the time off due to your pregnancy doesn't seem excessive. If they don't treat other employees as harshly, it could be seen as discriminatory.

You can read more about California's pregnancy disability leave at: http://www.dfeh.ca.gov/Statutes/pregnancyleave.asp

The law covers employers of five or more employees.