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"This morning, I removed the flag from my classroom for one last time. This afternoon, the principal asked me to return my key. Students and colleagues embraced me throughout the hours between those two moments, reminding me of why I came to teach in the first place, and of why I am leaving now. It was my last lesson for them; my last lesson from them." |
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| Today was the last day for Stephen Kobasa as an English teacher in a Catholic High School in Connecticut. What follows is Stephen's account of what transpired. He is taking time to reflect on what has happened and discern his own response. After class today, he talked with a reporter from the NCR and, it seems, will be speaking with the press. Your support for Stephen at this time is important. If you feel moved to write the people he includes at the bottom of his letter, please do so. | A poem by the winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature... |
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Friends all...It is not always easy to predict the moment when conscience will make its claims.The history below is drawn largely from a letter that I sent to Bishop Lori of the Diocese of Bridgeport. That letter was never answered.
My vocation as a Catholic high school teacher is now in its twenty-fifth year. Since 1999, I have taught English literature at Kolbe Cathedral High School in Bridgeport. Throughout that time, I have worked to take seriously that universal affirmation of St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians that "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
In a meeting with me on Friday, September 30th of this year, Dr. Margaret Dames, Superintendent of School of the Diocese of Bridgeport, explicitly stated that I would be dismissed from my employment as a teacher at Kolbe Cathedral High School if I refused to permanently display the flag of the United States of America in the class room to which I am assigned.
Delivered in the form of an ultimatum, the threat of this penalty is the consequence of a policy which has no official documentation, and for which I have been refused any explanation.
To concur in this policy would be to act against my conscience as a believing Roman Catholic Christian.
My teaching can never take its legitimacy from any symbol except the Cross of Christ. To elevate any national emblem to that level would be for me to ignore the fundamental call of Jesus to compassion without boundaries.
Although I have explained to any who have asked concerning the absence of the flag from my classroom, I have never demanded that any colleague or student imitate the practice merely upon my example. Rather, I offer it up as reflecting my own prayerful consideration of what my faith requires of me. For me, an essential element of the mission of Catholic education is to offer evidence of the practice of nonviolent peacemaking and principled resistance to nationalism that have been nourished and expressed within our tradition.
It is impossible for me not to see an act of discrimination against my long held religious beliefs in the invention and application of this policy requiring the flag in my classroom. Its unique and arbitrary standard, along with the extreme penalty attached to refusing it, creates the unmistakable impression that national loyalty is being valued over faithful obedience to the Gospel.
My attempt to pursue the grievance policy provided for by my teacher's contract was abandoned after the teachers' association of the diocese refused to support me, citing the primacy of "private property" in the case.
This has never been simply a matter of free speech, but of fidelity to the Gospel, an issue which all of the Church authorities involved have refused to acknowledge. Neither have they expressed any regret for the anxiety visited upon our family by their actions.
This morning, I removed the flag from my classroom for one last time.
This afternoon, the principal asked me to return my key. Students and colleagues embraced me throughout the hours between those two moments, reminding me of why I came to teach in the first place, and of why I am leaving now. It was my last lesson for them; my last lesson from them.
in peace,
Stephen
p.s. The addresses below are provided for your information:
The Most Reverend William E. Lori, S.T.D.
Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport
The Catholic Center
238 Jewett Avenue
Bridgeport, CT 06606
203-372-4301, Ext. 400
Margaret A. Dames, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools and Director of the Office for Education The Catholic Center
238 Jewett Ave.
Bridgeport, CT 06606
203-372-4301, Ext. 380
Fax : 203-372-1961
Email: mdames@diobpt.org
Mrs. Jo-Anne Jakab, Principal
Kolbe Cathedral High School
33 Calhoun Place
Bridgeport, CT 06604
203-335-2554
Fax: 203-335-2556
Email: cougars@kolbecaths.com