Hello all.

I had worked for the organization for just over a year. I recently finished my masters in my field and got accepted into a PhD program locally.

During my annual review with my director and manager, they expressed concern that I was unable to balance school and work, citing unspecified times I had done classwork during work hours. They asked me repeatedly if I thought I could balance the work and I repeatedly told them that I had made appropriate accommodations to make sure that everything ran smoothly and I didn't have any further problems. However my director said that they didn't think I would be able to balance my classes and my work and that thhe wanted to terminate my employment.

When we spoke with HR, they cited two specific things as, reason for dismissal:

1. "The results of your annual review" (the fact my director didn't think I could balance my schoolwork and work work)
2. "The incident with the student (student name) that happened recently."

My role was as one of the managers of the college program. We remotely managed college students all across the country. I had had a call with one of the graduating students who had asked me if she could continue doing the program in grad school. I advised her that she could continue the program, though also advised her that she should take some time to make sure she is able to fully commit to the program before deciding, since many of the students we work with who go from undergraduate to graduate studies end up dropping out because they don't realize the structure of their graduate program is different than their undergraduate experience. I believed it was in the student's best interests to take their time and figure out what they needed to do to be successful as a graduate student and see if our program fit into that. My director disagreed and said that I should have done whatever I could to keep her engaged in the program and had no right to say what I said. At first I had just chocked it up to ethical differences.

I know the general concept of how law works, but nothing about case law. My main questions are:

1. Is firing someone because of their educational goals legal? I am pretty sure student is not a protected class, but I don't know enough about the case history to really know whether that stands. They are claiming to use my last year as an indicator that I was unable to balance the, but I do feel like I am being singled out for to my educational goals.

2. Could the incident with the student be considered retaliation? I believe it is my ethical duty to discuss all options with the students in the program, not just encourage them to continue in our program because it benefits us. Since they specifically stated that this was a reason I was terminated, I'm curious to know if this could be retaliation

This is a large nonprofit based in Florida. I am also a member of the LGBTQ community and though there was nothing in this conversation that indicates that was a factor, it may have influenced certain things.

Should I find a lawyer? Is there not enough to go on? I personally feel like the organization does a lot of unethical things and I don't want to let the slide if it's actually something they shouldn't be doing.