$3M to Catholic school teacher in wrongful-termination suit

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A jury has awarded more than $3.5 million to a former Catholic school teacher who said the Archdiocese of Los Angeles fired her for being pregnant and unwed.

City News Service reports Wednesday that jurors deliberated for less than a day before finding in favor of Kourtney Liggins, an ex-science teacher at LA's Transfiguration School.

Her lawsuit alleged wrongful termination and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The panel found the archdiocese and the Rev. Michael Tang, the former pastor of Church of the Transfiguration, liable. A lawyer for the defendants didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

Liggins, now 48, says she was seven months pregnant in 2012 when Tang told her that her pregnancy would "morally corrupt" her students. Her contract was not renewed in 2013.