PORTLAND (AP) – Fired after taking a teenager to an off-campus clinic where she got a pregnancy test and a “morning after” birth-control pill, a veteran school nurse has gone to federal court to challenge her dismissal.

Calling the firing at Fort Kent Community High School unfair, Lola Charette maintains she followed the law and protected a student’s right to confidentiality.

School Administrative District 27 officials say she was terminated for violating an unwritten policy that prohibits students from leaving the school without parental permission.

Charette’s lawyer, David Webbert, said she wants her job back, with back pay, and is seeking damages from the district.

“She is a sacrificial lamb. She follows the law, which she has no control over, and gets fired in the middle of a school year,” Webbert said.

“Confidentiality was never an issue at all,” said Melissa Hewey, a lawyer for the school district. “She was terminated for taking a student off grounds without a parent’s permission. It doesn’t matter if it was for birth control or to get a tattoo.”

Maine’s confidentiality law prohibits a health care provider from divulging medical information without the patient’s consent.

According to Charette’s complaint, Superintendent Sandra Bernstein said the nurse had violated “community norms” and said, “If it was my daughter, I would want to know.”

Bernstein could not be reached for comment, the newspaper reported Sunday.

Charette had worked as the K-12 school nurse in SAD 27 since August 1982.

According to a letter dated March 3, 2003, Bernstein wrote that Charette was terminated for “exercising poor judgment” in assisting students in obtaining “medical services without notifying the parents or the administration.”

Bernstein wrote that this “resulted in the District losing confidence in her performance and judgment,” the newspaper said.

Hewey, the district’s lawyer, said Charette’s misjudgment was leaving school grounds without permission. She acknowledged the school had no written policy about off-campus medical appointments but said it was a well-established rule.

“Oh, sure. You fire someone after 20 years over a policy that is so unimportant nobody ever bothered to write it down?” Webbert said.

The case is moving forward in U.S. District Court in Bangor after surviving a motion to dismiss.

Charette said she tried to persuade the girl to tell her parents and family doctor about the appointment, but the girl refused. She also would not give Charette permission to talk to her parents.