Did the principal of a Catholic school really compare marching in a pro-life demonstration to taking drugs? Please tell me this is a mistake.
In a story about teachers’ contracts at a Catholic school in Oakland, that questions whether the diocese will be snooping in teachers’ personal lives, the principal of a Catholic school seems to say that being married to someone of the same sex is fine for a teacher but marching in a pro-life march would be verboten.
SFGate reports:
What if a teacher is part of an openly married, gay couple — is that a public position? What if a teacher marches in a pro-choice rally? Would a teacher who lives with a partner out of wedlock be fired?
“No to all of those,” said Pam Shay, principal of Bishop O’Dowd High School, where parents demonstrated in support of teachers after The Chronicle reported on the details of the contract language change.
“Now, if they were wearing their O’Dowd sweatshirt and marching in a (antiabortion) demonstration or posting a picture of them smoking a joint while wearing their school sweatshirt, that might be a different story,” Shay said.
This is either a terrible statement from the principal or one of the most egregious and biased mistakes by a reporter.
Now, as far as the principal goes, a number of teachers have been fired or not had their contract renewed after taking part in a gay marriage so this principal is likely giving bad information to her teachers and the public. But she might know exactly what she’s doing because this public statement would, I’m sure, be used against the diocese in a lawsuit should a teacher be fired for such a thing.
One would hope the diocese would clarify this story. I’ll keep an eye out.
Update: They did change the wording to a “pro-choice” demonstration. So that’s good news. Sadly, the rest of what the principal said seems to be accurate.
