Court appearance on company time?

[minnesotakent]

Minnesota

Here is the situation: I work in a school . A coworker of mine (another teacher) reported a terroristic threat a student made at school. She received a subpoena to appear in court at the student's trial. The school district is requiring her to use a personal leave day to attend the trial. The principal was also subpoenad, and I'll bet he doesn't have to use leave time to testify.

Can the school district require her to use personal time for this court date?

 

[Beth3]

Sure. An employer only offers personal time in the first place when someone has a compelling reason to be absent during work hours (and a lot of employers don't offer this at all.) I think the school is being a overly stringent given the reason why the teacher is testifying but that's their choice.