A Phillipsburg, Pennsylvania substitute teacher has filed a complaint against the school district that fired him for giving a bible to a student, according to WFMZ-TV.
Walt Tutka, who was, until recently, a substitute teacher for the Phillipsburg School District is citing religious discrimination and retaliation as the causes for his firing in Janurary. He filed his complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Liberty Insitute, a "non-profit law firm, dedicated to defending and restoring religious liberty across America," is working with a law firm in New Jersey to defend Tutka.
"It is shocking that the school district has forced Walt to file a complaint with the EEOC for religious discrimination," said Haram Sasser, director of litigation for Liberty Institute.
Tutka was instructing a class at Phillipsburg middle school in fall of 2012, when he quoted Matthew 20:16 from the bible which reads "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
Tutka's quote prompted the student to ask more than once for the origin of the verse. In response to the students request, Tutka brought out his own Bible to show the verse. Three days after his Oct. 12 demonstration, Tutka said he never worked again. A vote was put to the school board and Tutka was fired on Jan. 14.
According to LehighValleyLive.com, Sasser said the school district is refusing to give Tutka's legal team the emails that discuss Tutka's firing. Sasser said he's been told officials not handing over the emails because they're buried in "long paragraphs and legalese."
"We want to understand what their perspective is," he said. "For whatever reason, they don't want to show it to us."
Sasser said he hopes the school district will return Tutka's his job and "perhaps apologize for the all the craziness."
