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School district settles probe of handling of Muslim employee's pilgrimage

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CHICAGO—The board of education for an Illinois school district will pay $75,000 in back pay and damages to a teacher denied unpaid leave for a religious pilgrimage, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.

Safoorah Khan, a Muslim and former teacher at MacArthur Middle School in Berkeley, Ill., asked her superiors on Sept. 11, 2008, for an unpaid leave of absence to perform hajj, a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, that is required by her religion.

In a complaint filed in a Chicago federal court, the Justice Department alleges that the school district denied Ms. Khan’s request because it was unrelated to her teaching duties and not covered by her union’s contract with the district, effectively forcing her to choose between her job and her faith.

Ms. Khan eventually left her position to take the pilgrimage.

$75,000 settlement

The school district settled with Justice Department attorneys on Thursday, agreeing to pay Ms. Khan $75,000 in lost wages, compensatory damages and legal fees.

“Employees should not have to choose between practicing their religion and their jobs,” Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said in a statement. “The facts of this case show the consequences of an employer refusing to engage in any interactive process to understand and work with an employee to find an accommodation of the employee’s religious beliefs that will not cause undue hardship to the employer.”

New policy

In addition to payment, Berkeley School District 87 agreed to develop a policy consistent with federal requirements for reasonable accommodation of employees’ religious beliefs, practices and observances. The district also agreed to provide mandatory religious accommodation training to its board members, supervisors, managers and administrators.

Ms. Khan’s case was the first lawsuit filed by the Justice Department through a joint pilot project with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.