A teacher in a Christian childcare center alleges discrimination and wrongful termination. Parisenkova claims her former employer fired her for refusing to read LGBT books to the children in her care.

The Case: Parisenkova v. Bright Horizons

The Court: Los Angeles County Superior Courts

The Case No.: …0756 (pending)

The Plaintiff: Parisenkova v. Bright Horizons

The plaintiff in the case, Nelli Parisenkova, is a Christian childcare teacher formerly employed by Bright Horizons. Parisenkova claims she was mistreated at work and terminated because religious objections led her to refuse to read books to children that featured same-sex couples. The plaintiff claims she was aware that the reading material was in the classroom for years but wasn't required to read them to the children. However, the situation changed in April. According to the plaintiff, Katy Callas, the director at the Bright Horizons Studio City location, became aware of Parisenkova's religious objections to the books and refused the plaintiff's request for a religious accommodation. According to the plaintiff, the situation escalated into a hostile work environment that led to her wrongful termination. Parisenkova filed a wrongful termination and discrimination lawsuit in the Superior Court of California.

The Defendant: Parisenkova v. Bright Horizons

Bright Horizons Children's Center, founded in 1986, is the largest childcare company in the nation, with hundreds of locations worldwide and more than 26,000 employees. The plaintiff, Nelli Parisenkova, worked at their Studio City location for four years caring for children aged five and younger. When Parisenkova requested an accommodation in response to the situation, the defendant allegedly denied the request, issued a counseling memo with false statements, terminated Parisenkova's life insurance benefits, assigned her mandatory diversity training, and encouraged her to resign. Bright Horizons faces unlawful retaliation, discrimination, harassment, religious harassment, wrongful termination, failure to accommodate, unlawful constructive discharge, and disparate treatment charges.

Details of the Case: Parisenkova v. Bright Horizons

The Bright Horizons childcare company is known as an outspoken supporter of the LGBT community, publicly sharing their support efforts, including their childcare centers' celebrations of LGBT History Month, Pride parades, and reading LGBT-themed books in their classrooms. Bright Horizons endorsed the Equality Act in 2019, adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the federal anti-discrimination policy. Parisenovka claims that while her behavior on the job did not change during the years she worked at Bright Horizons, upper management's treatment of her abruptly changed when they received her formal accommodation request. She claims the company responded by leveling the full force of their allegedly anti-religious and uninclusive diversity policy at her trying to get her to quit through harassment and discrimination. According to the complaint, they fired her when they couldn't intimidate her into quitting.

If you have questions about how to file a California wrongful termination lawsuit, please get in touch with Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP. Experienced employment law attorneys are ready to assist you in various law firm offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Chicago.