Separated Spanish religion teacher fights sacking

MADRID, Feb 24 (Reuters) A Spanish religion teacher sacked because she was separated from her husband and living with another man plans to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights after a Spanish court upheld her dismissal.

Under Spanish law, the church appoints religion teachers and decides the curriculum, freeing the state from any role in directing the religious education of Spaniards.

Maria del Carmen Galayo, who was sacked from her job in 2000, said she would keep fighting to be reinstated.

''Of course I will take this to Europe,'' she told national radio RNE yesterday. ''It is inconceivable and shocking that everyone has the right to separate and divorce except me. Why? I don't get it.'' The constitutional court said it was up to religious authorities to decide whether a teacher was right for the job.

''The court recognises that this decision is not limited to strict considerations of a person's knowledge of dogma or their teaching ability but also can be extended to questions of their personal behaviour,'' it said in its ruling, published yesterday.

It added that in religious circles, behaviour could be considered a vital element of a person's ability to teach as personal witness was a way of transmitting certain values.

REUTERS SSC KN0914