CHICAGO – The latest front on the war on women has opened in Chicago.

Teachers say a one-time Chicago “principal of the year” has been firing ones who have declared they’re pregnant.

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Reuters reports:

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday sued the Chicago Board of Education, alleging that it discriminated against pregnant teachers at a northwest side elementary school.

The suit, filed in federal court in the third largest U.S. city, alleges that starting in 2009, Scammon Elementary School Principal Mary Weaver subjected female teachers to lower performance evaluations, discipline, threatened firing and firing because of their pregnancies.

“No woman should have to make a choice between her job and having a family,” says Vanita Gupta, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division. “Federal law requires employers to maintain a workplace free of discrimination on the basis of sex.”

The school system vehemently denies the accusations.

“Chicago Public Schools is strongly committed to creating a workplace that values and respects all employees and will not tolerate the kind of discrimination or retaliation that is alleged to have taken place at Scammon Elementary school,” the system says in a statement, according to Crain’s.

“Chicago Public Schools intends to vigorously defend against the suit and stands behind its commitment to its Comprehensive Non-Discrimination Policy and to the fair treatment of pregnant employees.”

CPS gave Weaver its “Principal Achievement Award” last year.

The DOJ alleges Weaver “responded to one teacher’s pregnancy announcement with ‘I can’t believe you are doing this to me. You are going to be out right before [mandatory] testing,'” according to the suit.

It also says Weaver seemingly pestered another teacher who was nursing: “That isn’t over yet?” and “When will you be done with that?”

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“The feds want a judge to impose a court order requiring the board to put in place policies to end discrimination against pregnant teachers, plus compensation for the teachers who were harmed by the alleged discrimination,” the Sun-Times reports.

The lawsuit was filed two teachers – Jane Bushue and Jennifer Morris – who were pregnant while working at Weaver’s school.

They filed sex-discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which found “reasonable cause to believe discrimination occurred” at Scammon, the paper reports.