San Francisco workers stand together

In a statement last week, organizers in San Francisco announced that 80% of the teachers and staff at the high schools being threatened with Archbishop Cordileone's proposed morality clauses have signed a statement calling on him to remove the language. “We believe the recently proposed handbook language is harmful to our community and creates an atmosphere of mistrust and fear. We believe our schools should be places of inquiry and the free exchange of ideas where all feel welcome and affirmed. Such language has no place in our handbooks. We respectfully ask Archbishop Cordileone to use the faculty handbook currently in place,” they said in a press release. They explained that the petition was written and distributed by a committee of fifteen teachers from the four schools over a 2 day period and delivered to their Union Representatives who, in turn will deliver the petition to the Archbishop.

Jim Jordan, an English teacher from Sacred Heart Cathedral and one of the organizers of the Open Statement noted, “as teachers, we are not only seeking to preserve a safe and vibrant community that supports education and the free exchange of ideas, but the safety and wellbeing of our students. This language in this judgmental context undermines the mission of Catholic education and the inclusive, diverse and welcoming community we prize at our schools. It is an attack not only on teachers’ labor and civil rights, but on young people who are discovering who they are in the world.”