A court hearing scheduled for this week and the federal lawsuit of a former teacher against Butte Central Catholic Schools have been postponed pending bankruptcy hearings for the Diocese of Helena.

Shaela Evenson filed the suit in August alleging discrimination. She has already filed documents in the case alleging gender and pregnancy discrimination. She is asking for $500,000 in that claim.

Evenson contends the district breached its contract with her and discriminated against her because she was pregnant and because she is female. This broke both federal and state laws, her suit claims.

The case could be subject to the pending bankruptcy of the Diocese of Helena, her attorneys wrote in a request for the delay. Evenson plans to add the diocese to the lawsuit once the bankruptcy is resolved.

As a result of the firing, Evenson says she has incurred damages including lost wages, benefits and emotional distress. She is asking for back pay, compensatory and punitive damages — and a jury trial.

Evenson taught sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade literature and physical education at the Catholic school for nine years. She was dismissed Jan. 10 after the Helena Diocese received an anonymous letter about her pregnancy.

The district has said it fired Evenson for violating the terms of her contract, which required her to practice the tenets of the Catholic faith inside and outside the classroom.

Evenson gave birth to a boy on March 7, the first child for Evenson and her partner, Marilyn Tobin, both of Butte.

In the summer of 2013, Evenson, who is not married, became pregnant through artificial insemination, court documents show. The lawsuit says the then-superintendent of schools for the diocese, Patrick Haggarty, called Evenson into a meeting on Jan. 9, 2014. He told her that he and the Bishop of Helena had received an anonymous letter stating she was pregnant and not married — a violation of her contract. He suggested she resign; Evenson refused.

On Sunday, Jan. 12, Haggarty emailed a letter to Evenson saying she was immediately terminated for having a child out of wedlock. The letter, in part, said that she violated school and diocese policies and moral and religious teachings of the Catholic Church.

The suit noted that the district does not investigate male employees and non-pregnant female employees for compliance with Catholic Church teachings, and its only means to determine compliance is “observation of pregnancy in unmarried women.’’

Evenson also performed all obligations under her contract, and firing her without good cause is a breach of that contract, the suit says.