Domestic violence is a complicated issue, as I wrote in a story this week about its relationship to gun violence and mass shootings. It requires complicated solutions—many large and small legal and policy and social changes—to effectively deal with. But here is something that helps no one: firing domestic violence survivors for their abusers’ behavior.

Like Holy Trinity School, a Catholic school in San Diego, just did. Says the local NBC news station:

Second-grade teacher Carie Charlesworth is out of a job, but not for anything she did in the classroom. Her school district considers her a liability and too unsafe to have around following a domestic violence dispute that happened earlier this year.

A letter sent to Charlesworth said that school officials are concerned about her ex-husband’s “threatening and menacing behavior,” and as a result they “cannot allow” her to continue teaching at the Holy Trinity School.

They also kicked out her four kids. She’s been a teacher in the district for 14 years.

It’s smart to be afraid of abusers, but Charlesworth was doing everything she could to keep her family and the school where she worked safe. She had a restraining order, she warned her principal when she thought her ex might show up at her workplace, she called police multiple times. And her ex ended up in jail. But when the school sent her a letter telling her she could not return to work there, nor “any other school in the Diocese,” they explained why they were really freaked: “Although we understand he is current[ly] incarcerated, we have no way of knowing how long or short a time he will actually serve and we understand from court files that he may be released as early as next fall.”

That is a failure on the part of the legal system—something Charlesworth can’t control and doesn’t deserve an ounce of blame for.

So she was fired, sending the horrible message to Charlesworth—and other victims of domestic abuse—that if you stand up for yourself, if you work hard to get yourself and your kids out of an abusive situation, you will be punished for it. Now she’s an unemployed mother of four waiting for her abuser to get out of jail. Good work, guys!

And as a super-extra-depressing side note, she has a lawyer hoping to file a suit, but because she taught religion at the school, says the NBC 7 story, “there’s legal precedence showing she can be fired without cause just like a priest or pastor.” Grrrrreat.

Thanks (I guessss), Slog tipper Kari.