YOUNGSTOWN Fired teacher will appeal court ruling

She claims discrimination, but the city diocese says her marriage was invalid.
YOUNGSTOWN -- A woman who says she was wrongly fired from St. Charles School in Boardman is appealing a county judge's ruling in favor of the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown.
Mary Ellen Potts of Orchard Avenue, Hubbard, filed a notice Thursday that she will appeal the ruling of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge R. Scott Krichbaum to the 7th District Court of Appeals.
Potts filed a lawsuit in May 2002 claiming she was wrongly fired in December 2001 after teaching for many years at the school.
Judge Krichbaum dismissed the lawsuit in January at the diocese's request.
Potts claimed the diocese discriminated against her because of her age by hiring a younger teacher and because she was at the top of the pay scale.
Potts was 59 when the lawsuit was filed.
But the diocese said Potts had entered into a marriage the Catholic Church did not recognize as valid. Potts married a man who was in the process of having his previous marriage annulled by the church.
Judge Krichbaum ruled that Potts violated her contract by entering into a marriage the church didn't recognize and that the diocese is not required to justify its decision since the terms of her contract provided for her termination under those circumstances.