School Administrator ‘Stunned’ After Being Suspended Because She’s Married to a Woman

For 15 years, Shelly Fitzgerald has worked as a guidance counselor and administrator at Roncalli High School, a Catholic school in Indianapolis.

Last week, it took a 17-minute meeting for school leaders to tell her that her job was at risk. The reason, she said, was because she is married to a woman.

“I was stunned,” said Fitzgerald, 45, in an interview. “They showed me they had a copy of my marriage certificate, and let me know how it was going to play out.”

Fitzgerald and her partner had been together for nearly 18 years when they decided to marry in 2014. They have a daughter who is now 12, and they have created a life together that included dinner parties and weddings with friends and alumni from Roncalli.

But while their relationship was no secret, Fitzgerald said, it was also not openly discussed within the community at the school, whose 1,194 students attend grades nine through 12.

“I did not announce it,” she said. “I never came out one time to a single student and parent.”

Fitzgerald said last Thursday, she received an email from the school requesting a meeting. On Friday, she met with Chuck Weisenbach, the principal, and Joseph D. Hollowell, the superintendent, in a conference room.

“I had contacted Chuck to ask him, ‘Should I be concerned?'” she said. “He said they wanted to talk.”

At the meeting, she was told that a parishioner at a local church had obtained a copy of her marriage certificate and given it to a priest, who had shared it with school leaders at Roncalli.

Fitzgerald was given four options, she said: resign, dissolve her marriage, “keep quiet” and work until her contract ended next July, or be fired.

But by Sunday night, she had been placed on paid administrative leave. Her lawyer, David A. Page, said she has been barred from the campus.

Officials at the school and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis, which supervises Roncalli and 67 other schools, declined repeated requests for comment.

Instead, they emailed a joint statement, calling Catholic schoolteachers, counselors and administrators “vital ministers” in the church’s mission, an expectation outlined in employment contracts.

“As role models for students, the personal conduct of every teacher, guidance counselor and administrator and staff member, both at school and away from school, must convey and be supportive of the teachings of the Catholic Church,” it said.

It said the teachings include “the belief that all persons are called to respect human sexuality and its expression in the Sacrament of Marriage between a man and a woman as a sign of God’s love and fidelity to His Church.”

“When the expectations of a contract are not being met, the employee and the school will attempt to reach a resolution so that the contractual requirements are fulfilled,” it said.

As news spread of the action taken against Fitzgerald, groups of alumni and students protested on campus, posted supportive messages on social media and praised her to local news outlets.

Madison Aldrich, a junior, said Roncalli’s LGBT students needed to be reassured after the backlash against Fitzgerald, who had helped students with family losses, anxiety attacks and navigating social issues. Madison said she believes the archdiocese, not the school, was to blame for Fitzgerald’s suspension.

“We are trying to stay respectful and send a message of love and staying united,” she told The Indianapolis Star.

The case is the latest example of educators being banished from Catholic schools because of their sexual orientation, which has also occurred in Texas and Florida.

In Indiana, no statewide law protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation, said Steve Sanders, an associate professor at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law.

The city of Indianapolis has an ordinance that prohibits such discrimination, but it exempts religious institutions and their schools.

“It is a patchwork,” Sanders said.

Page, Fitzgerald’s lawyer, said he believed the archdiocese had begun taking a tougher stance on LGBT issues under Archbishop Charles C. Thompson, who was appointed in June 2017 by Pope Francis.

He said their next step is to try to “open a dialogue” with the church and school to resolve the matter. But he added that they might pursue legal action, possibly by filing a Title VII discrimination claim in federal court.

Supreme Court doctrine has held that the First Amendment prohibits the use of Title VII in cases where the employee’s job involves religious functions, Sanders said, so the success of such a claim would hinge on the nature of Fitzgerald’s actual job duties.

The Star reported Wednesday that the school had shut down its Facebook page, after a post defending its decision to suspend Fitzgerald had garnered more than 1,900 comments and nearly 300 shares by Monday afternoon. Comments criticizing the school far outnumbered those that supported the decision, the newspaper said.

“It is an interesting episode in the ongoing story of greater gay and lesbian acceptance in society,” Sanders said. “So much of the tenor and coverage is very sympathetic to the teacher.”

Fitzgerald said her school email account had been shut down.

“I love Roncalli. I have lots of love in my heart,” she said. “This is a really trying time for me and my family. My heart is broken.”