Oklahoma Official Questions Hiring Pregnant Women

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A member of Oklahoma's Board of Education drew heated reaction Thursday after saying a newly hired administrator would be "worthless" as a legislative liaison if she took immediate maternity leave.

Shortly after the board voted to hire Jessica Russell, who is due to give birth in April, former state Sen. Herb Rozell noted that she was pregnant and questioned whether she would be around for key days of the upcoming legislative session.

Russell was hired to represent the state Department of Education's interests at the Capitol. The Oklahoma Legislature reconvenes Feb. 7 and must end its business by May 27.

"If she has that baby in April and takes off six weeks, she's worthless to us," Rozell said.

While there was some laughter in the room, state schools Superintendent Janet Barresi rebuked Rozell and ordered a 10-minute recess. Russell left the room in tears.

"Your comment is inappropriate and not worthy of this board and this department," Barresi said.

After the meeting, Rozell said his words came out wrong.

"I didn't mean to interfere. I was just hoping we could have her in April and May, because that's when everything gets tied up," he said.

Gov. Mary Fallin called Rozell's remark "demeaning" and "disgusting," while Sen. Clark Jolley and Sen. John Ford called for Rozell to resign. Jolley said Rozell's comment was "archaic, misogynistic and deplorable."

Rozell didn't immediately return a phone message seeking comment about calls for his resignation.

Oklahoma has about 660,000 students in its public education system.

Comments

[CJ1]

09:23 PM on 02/08/2011

If men were allowed Paternity leave, this wouldn't continue to be an issue. Although nowadays, many men do take a few weeks off, so I guess that means reproduction in general is "useless.'

[RitaS]

11:36 PM on 02/04/2011

A qualified Woman is 'worthless' because she's pregnant....

Frankly, YOU, 'former' state Sen. Herb Rozell are 'worthless'...

[leannk]

11:02 AM on 01/31/2011

It was unprofessional and wrong for Rozell to even mention that Russell was pregnant in a public forum. He only advertised his ignorance to the discrimination laws. You cannot ask a woman if she is pregnant or plans on getting pregnant.

No one knows if she is going to take 6 weeks off and it was inappropriate for him to bring. I know many professional women that may only take 2 weeks off and then work flexible hours to still get the job done, while transitioning to having a new baby. Believe it or not, many professional women are great at multi-tasking (home, kids, work, spouse, etc). Regardless, it is her legal right to take time off due to having a baby or adopting.

[LMPE]

07:33 PM on 01/30/2011

I question Herb Rozell's qualifications to do anything except maybe clean sewers.

[BJHenton]

08:48 AM on 01/30/2011

If men gave birth we wouldn't even be talking about this. Women have babies, this does not mean they cannot perform on the job. Surely no one is suggesting that she shouldn't have time to give birth and recover!

[Claudia Swisher]

12:11 PM on 01/30/2011

No one is suggesting that. What we are suggesting (I'm a teacher in OK) is that she wait until after her leave to take the job, since the most important, intense time of this year is the exact time she'll be out. I would not have applied for a job if I knew I would not be on the job when the job was the most complicated. She will not be there to represent teachers and children in Ok, to challenge, to question, to respond immediately to crazy bills from the legislature. And, believe me, there are some crazy ones already proposed. Why would she want to take a job knowing full well she won't be available? SOme of us wonder if this is a cynical message to the legislature from our education-unfriendly Super to 'go ahead.' She knew the demands of the job before she applied. And BTW -- the Super cannot hire, only the Board. This woman and two others have been 'on the job,' paid by a private foundation. And they're still there. This story is so horribly distorted.

[Lisa Shields]

12:44 AM on 01/30/2011

It's been my observation that word choice often reveals a lot about attitude.
When you are a public figure, you are obliged to be careful about what you say...since nothing is EVER off the record. This isn't 1950. A baby on the way can as easily impact on the father's work performance and availability as the mothers. But you'd never hear someone say "Well Al will be a dad in a few weeks...if he's helping his wife out after the birth, he'll be useless. "

I've seen women who were back to work days (less than a week) after having babies---particularly ones who owned their own businesses. Can we please stop acting like this doesn't happen?

[Claudia Swisher]

10:44 PM on 01/29/2011

Please look beyond the hype. I'm a teacher in OK, and I listened to the podcast of this meeting. The new Super, no friend to public schools, actually hired her campaign cronies (who have no educational experience or training) without Board approval. The Board objected to the nearly $100,000 salaries. This position demands the person be available 24/7 to respond to fast-breaking developments. Our legislature typically waits until the last weeks of the session to pass education legislation, and without a liaison who can instantly respond, we'll have even crazier laws passed than we already have. We actually wonder if this woman was offered the job because she'd be gone during the last weeks of the session...kind of a green-light to the education-unfriendly legislators to 'have at it.' There is much more to this story than is in this short article.

[carolina919]

12:51 AM on 01/30/2011

As Paul Harvey used to remind us, there sometimes is "more to the rest of the story"....Perhaps it wasn't worded as kindly as it could have been but I agree with the notion that "availability" during a critical time period is a bona fide concern. Timing, very often, is everything....the more devious aspect of the story really is a hoot. No wonder scriptwriters scan the news

[Lea11]

10:06 PM on 01/29/2011

We need to as a country look at the Scandinavians and their respect of the family.

[JStading]

11:47 PM on 01/29/2011

Where families are so poor that they have to work nonstop to fund the benefits they claim help them?  There is a reason I am a second generation American and why my grandparents didn't remain in Finland.  Here's a hint - the tax rate literally drove them to poverty.

[Lea11]

01:07 AM on 01/30/2011

What are you talking about Scandinavia has some of the highest living standards in the World.

[Skeetshooter]

07:10 PM on 01/29/2011

How does the word 'worthless' come out wrong? It means what it means. The words didn't come out wrong, the certainly the wrong words came out. -Probably because this is the wrong man for the superintendents job, or its the wrong job for this... man. He'd make a good trash collector. I bet his collection is stellar.

[redsquirell]

02:46 PM on 01/29/2011

How dare anyone question anything? I get his point. Would you hire a groundskeeper who was going to need the first football season off or would you wait and hire him when he can start work?
I fully understand women are discriminated against for many reasons, including giving birth to the rest of us, and women should be given time off and consideration, but why put someone new on the payroll until they can physically do the job? If they want to pay for the babies birth for her , I am sure they can figure out a way.
Who knows? Probably one heck of an underpaid assistant running the entire "liaison" office anyhow.

[TruEngineHearing]

10:33 AM on 01/29/2011

He's a beaut, but he's not alone. They're out there in public and in our families - the 'clueless infallibles'. Their willingness to hurt "with a good reason", and their obscene certainty and joy in judging other souls, damages our place in the universe, and cheapens all our efforts.

[marinatha]

02:34 AM on 01/29/2011

This is 2011 is it not? Where do these people come from? Was it a loop in a black hole ?

[AngelaQuattrano]

02:59 AM on 01/29/2011

A tesserac.

[swlewis57]

12:33 AM on 01/29/2011

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-education-board-meeting-turns-contentious/article/3535891?custom_click=lead_story_title

Link to the story in the Daily Oklahoman.

[swlewis57]

12:14 AM on 01/29/2011

This newly elected School Superintendent was tring to hire her cronies. 3 of them got rejected for being unqualified at that first board meeting, and was trying to pay them with funds from a conservative group.

Hypocrite alert!!

[CJHAN]

01:33 AM on 01/29/2011

Her stated goal her is to make an many privatefor profit schools as he can here to line the pockes of those same cronies.

[swlewis57]

11:57 PM on 01/28/2011

Living in Oklahoma, I know a bit about this story. The newly elected republican Superintendent, Barrissi, ran on cutting the state education budget, consolidating school districts and with job cuts, and it just came out today that teacher's salaries are being cut. What Barrissi did during that school board meeting was to insist on hiring 3 new hires to help her out, and they are fairly high paying jobs. What is not mentioned in the above story is that Barrissi has been trying to hire cronies like her campaign manager for a $96,000/year job he is unquailified for. The woman in question isn't even trained or acquainted with the job. As soon as she is trained, she will have to leave to job for a number of weeks on maternity leave with pay. Superintendent Barrissi is trying to ADD additional administrative jobs when she VOWED to CUT administrative jobs.
What a hypocrite. Here's the story in the Daily Oklahoman:
http://newsok.com/oklahoma-education-board-meeting-turns-contentious/article/3535891?custom_click=lead_story_title