Of Flags and Crosses
Bridgeport Catholic school English teacher Stephen Kobasa is fired over his refusal to hang a flag
by Brita Belli - October 20, 2005, Fairfield Weekly

Former Kolbe-Cathedral teacher Stephen Kobasa follows his conscience. When English teacher Stephen Kobasa was fired from Kolbe-Cathedral High School in Bridgeport last Thursday, approximately 10 students, according to one teacher's report, wore signs throughout the day in quiet protest with messages like "Save Mr. Kobasa." It's the type of nonviolent action Kobasa himself might have engaged in when faced with a system that punishes the powerless
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Kobasa was forced to leave Kolbe-Cathedral after six years of teaching when the superintendent of the Catholic school decided to enforce a policy of having an American flag hanging permanently in each classroom, as well as having students recite the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer at the start of each school day. Observing that policy had deep ramifications for the English teacher.

Kobasa, who gladly led his classes in prayer, sought to open a dialogue with administrators and his students to explain why the symbol of the flag was, in his view, in direct contradiction to the symbol of the crucifix. He sent a letter to Bishop William E. Lori, but received no reply. Kobasa, who is widely known in the New Haven community as a peace activist, attached scriptural messages and a quote from Thomas Merton to the flag in his classroom, which he had hanging under duress while he waited for the grievance process to end.

In more than 20 years as a Catholic school teacher, Kobasa says he'd never been forced to hang a flag before.

"My faith understanding of the gospel is a compassion without boundaries," Kobasa explained. "The commandment to love one's enemies is the most clear statement against nationalism that I know. And so I just can't embrace that kind of contradiction when I'm in the midst of teaching in what purports to be a Christian/Catholic institution."

Kobasa, 57, wears thick-rimmed glasses, a beard and a small anti-war button on his jacket lapel. He holds master's degrees from both Yale and the University of Chicago in Religious Studies and Social Thought. He says he chose to teach at the secondary school level, in Catholic schools specifically, because the teaching involved a moral component. "Catholic education needs to be about not just accepting the dominant culture of self-interest and greed and violence," he says during a conversation at a Fairfield diner the day after his Oct. 13 firing. The communities where he chose to teach--Thomas Aquinas High School in New Britain (now closed) and then Kolbe--had students whose lives were filled with difficulty and despair. He saw his teaching as an antidote to the turmoil of their lives outside his classroom. In a Catholic school setting, he was able to teach that "your faith can carry you into the world that's often threatening and deadly. You have the power to live differently and to measure success by compassion," Kobasa explained. When he taught the students Macbeth , he could "talk about the terrible damage that violence does to the soul."

That commitment to his vocation led Kobasa to anti-nuclear and anti-war protests around the state; he estimates that he's been arrested somewhere between 20 to 25 times for charges like trespassing and destruction of government property (for leaving ashes on the Enola Gay). School administrators, faculty and even some students were well aware of his nonviolent activities before he was hired. Last year, he gained notice when he was photographed while protesting Michael Ross's death penalty sentence. However, no one interviewed for this story had the sense that Kobasa's activism outside the classroom had precipitated the firing. Instead, students and faculty described a model teacher--one who is intelligent and who stirred his students to serious thought.

Kolbe senior Peter Casey says Kobasa was his favorite teacher. After taking him for British Literature and Voices of American Protest, he was looking forward to having Kobasa for Honor's English 4. "It wasn't right for them to have him lose his job," Casey says. "It wasn't like he was taking anything away from the students, because he gave us the option if we wanted to say the pledge. If we wanted to hold the flag up, he would have let us... He's such a great teacher and it wasn't right for him to have to lose his job over something like this. He always taught us to stand up for what we believe in."

Fellow English teacher Gianna Miller, who's taught at Kolbe for the past five years, says she has always had a flag hanging in her classroom, but that the rule had never been enforced before last week. "We've always had to say the pledge, but it was never pushed before," Miller says. "It was never questioned whether or not teachers did that." While sitting in on one of Kobasa's classes, Miller says, "I felt like I was in a college classroom. The questions that he asked and the level of response that he demanded from [his students], was of a higher caliber. He didn't let students get lazy with their thoughts, he constantly challenged them to do more thinking and work to the best of their abilities, which is definitely something that's going to be missed."

While Kobasa suggests that a colleague took issue with his refusal to hang the flag, leading to the ultimate policy enforcement and his dismissal, he has not been able to confirm that. Nor has he received the sort of open dialogue he hoped for with school officials like Diocesan Superintendent of Catholic Schools Dr. Margaret Dames and the Bishop, neither of whom could be reached for comment. Kobasa says he never intended to turn this into a free speech or legal issue (which he feels would be futile in a private school setting), but only wants the school and diocese to "take on the values issue... the values of the cross versus the values of the flag." In their refusal to do so, he finds a larger issue of the damage that is being done to the mission of the Catholic church as it aligns itself, unquestioningly, with political forces. "The church has to stand as a prophetic witness to peacemaking and love of enemies," Kobasa says. "Whenever it gives in to the system of government, it relinquishes that power."