A well-loved and respected teacher in Columbus, Ohio was allegedly fired for being gay after mentioning her lesbian partner in her mother’s obituary.
After 19 years, Carla Hale, a physical education teacher and coach at Bishop Watterson High School, was unexpectedly terminated by the Catholic Diocese of Columbus. According to students who are campaigning to have her reinstated, the decision was based on her sexuality.
Outlook Columbus reports:
Hale’s mother, Jeanne E. Roe of Powell, passed away on Feb. 25, and her obituary appeared in The Columbus Dispatch the next day. Hale’s partner, Julie, was listed among Roe’s survivors. That is what prompted school officials to fire Hale, the source said.
Outraged students have responded with a petition on Change.org, calling on Bishop Watterson to issue an apology to Hale and reinstate her immediately:
How about we take this to the next level?
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Carla Hale…was a teacher who cared for her students and treated each one with respect. The school, however, did not reciprocate that respect in its treatment of her. Discrimination and injustice is something that we all have a duty to fight in today’s society. It’s unfair that someone who cared so much about her students and her job should lose them on the basis of something she cannot even control. The school claims its mission is to teach its students about love, acceptance, and tolerance, and yet it did none of this in the way it treated Ms. Hale. That is why we all have to stand up together and let it be known that this decision is unacceptable.
So far, the petition has garnered over 10,000 supporters. Bishop Watterson High School and the Catholic Diocese have yet to respond to the allegations, though Diocese spokesman George Jones told Outlook it’s church policy not to comment on personnel matters.
This is the second time this year that an Ohioan Catholic school has run afoul of the LGBT community. Back in February, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati fired Mike Moroski, an assistant principal at Purcell Marian High School, after he publicly supported same-sex marriage on his personal blog.
DOFEK
Carla, sweetheart tell them all to get fucked!make them pay for it $$$$ the only way they understand!: AdamHomo
Ridpathos
I don’t understand why gay teachers continue to work for Catholic schools. They know they will just lose their job eventually and have to go through a legal battle. Also if church’s can’t be non-discriminatory in their hiring and personnel practices, the church should be barred from opening any schools ever. I say we make our goal the shut down of all religious schools.
Merv
I’m not sure how many times gay people have to be burned before they learn: Do not associate with Christians. They hate gay people.
Dakotahgeo
@Ridpathos: The Catholic church is indeed paying for its sins as we speak. Three Kansas City, MO Catholic schools have closed or will close by this May. The Catholics are finally beginning to vote with their feet and pocketbooks. The Catholic hierarchy no longer has a hold on their minds any more, thank God! It is NOT Christians who are to blame! It is the knuckle dragger christians who bring on these sad affairs!
Dakotahgeo
And, take into consideration WHERE this took place: OHIO! Do you really expect intelligence from OHIO bigots or from any other state?!
tdx3fan
I feel for her… I really do, but the first thing you learn growing up gay in Ohio is that if you have any aspiration to become a school teacher then change that aspiration. This is one area that is off limits to people who desire to maintain steady employment in Ohio. Its not right, its not fair, but it just is… Ohio.
tdx3fan
@DOFEK: This is not discrimination as no school district in Ohio is going to have an anti-discrimination law that includes sexual orientation, and the state has no laws (and most likely never will since they have been trying to pass them for some 15 years) that protect LGBT.
Polaro
@tdx3fan This is exactly discrimination. It is not protected under the law in Ohio, but it is discrimination and needs to stop.
tdx3fan
@Polaro: I meant discrimination in a legal definition. I did not mean to claim that this was not discrimination in the broader sense of the terminology.
Kieru
@Dakotahgeo: Wow… way to blanket an entire state in ignorance. Sure Ohio has a DOMA that is brutal. But Columbus? It’s got a HUGE LGBT population and has been rated as one of the best cities in the country to live in if you are LGBT.
This has nothing to do with the state; and everything to do with the church. A petition isn’t going to change their minds.
MuscleModelBlog.com
This is terrible. Firing a faithful employee after 19 years of service because of an obituary?! However, I think that although the school administrators may have liked her, higher-ups in the Catholic hierarchy would not have liked it if she had continued working at the school…so perhaps they “had no choice” but to fire her. It still doesn’t make it right, of course, but that is one possible explanation since she worked there for so long…
Cam
I just have two questions…
have they fired all the divorced teachers? Because you know, Jesus spoke out against divorce but never homosexuality.
And 2….just so I have this clear. The Pope/Vatican will hustle Cardinal Law, the man who presided over the systematic molestation of hundreds of children and who protected their rapists, off to the Vatican and call him a direct Vatican employee to shield him from the Boston Police who were about to bring him in for questioning…AND the church has allowed him to continue working in the Vatican after their normal retirement age because of “Special circumstances”…..
And yet a popular 19 year veteran school teacher should not be allowed to have a job because she had the bad sense not to rape a child, but rather to be in a long term committed loving relationship…
Catholic church, is that correct?
tdx3fan
@Kieru: Its still Ohio. Put yourself in the Columbus bubble as much as you want, but this is still a state that seeks to destroy us. I grew up in a small town in Ohio. I moved to a larger city. Sure, I am isolated by the Cleveland bubble, but I will gladly let anyone call Ohio on its bullshit.
shelleybear
Holy Mackerel snapper Batman.
roniboi
What is to be expected here? The Catholic Church (which I am a member of) does not want LGBT people in their congregation to be open about their sexual orientation and sexual identity.
kevnworth
@Dakotahgeo: Fighting bigotry with bigotry isn’t productive or intelligent. Ohio cities – such as Columbus and Delaware – have same-sex partner benefits in their school systems and Columbus was one of the first cities nationwide to have this. Catholic schools – regardless of what state they are in – are forced to follow church doctrine.
kevnworth
@tdx3fan: False. Columbus City Schools not only has anti-discrimination policies (that include transgender folks), but also same-sex partner benefits.
Dakotahgeo
@Kieru: So noted. My comment stands. With any luck, the Catholic school systems will implode, due to running out of money.
Billysees
Didn’t a Catholic church spokesperson recently say that their church should be more open and friendlier to the Gay community.
What happened ?
They seem to be getting nastier and nastier as time goes on.
heydavis
@Billysees: The RCC in San Francisco is doing just the opposite, becoming more vehemently anti-LGBT. Anyone need to wonder why they’ve had to close dozens of churches & schools?
Billysees
@heydavis: 20
The RCC has always promoted compassionate attitudes towards the Gay community over the years.
Just re-read this article and compared it with what they’re doing today and it started to make my own compassion towards them dry up —
http://www.queerty.com/mn-archbishop-john-nienstadt-to-parishioner-reject-gay-son-or-go-to-hell-20121010/#ixzz2AMcsWhfE
Wonder why this organization can’t cope with the affairs of the day ?