Should teachers have personal lives?

Well, I think you have to consider the reason why people send their kids to private, religious schools. Because they want the schools to teach and model religious values. And a football coach is someone the boys really look up to.

The school has a contract with the parents, and a contract with the coach. If the contract with the coach says he has to follow strict Catholic traditions with respect to marriage, then the coach is on notice that his actions will cost him his job. If not, you have to look at the clear intent of the parties. If it's been clear in the district that strict Catholic practices are expected by parents and by the administration, then that's as good as having it written in the contract.

If we remove private schools' rights to set religious requirements of its teachers, we'll just force religious parents to look for educational alternatives that are even farther out of the mainstream. On the other hand, anyone who doesn't like the school's policies is free to seek employment / education elsewhere.

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Here here, SKL. I find myself agreeing with you more and more these days, and you are able to get the point across more eloquently than I ever could.

Of course teachers should be able to have private lives, I don't really think that's what this is about. The Roman Catholic faith has certain rules, and teachers in a catholic school should be models of that faith, just as a teacher in a Muslim school would be expected to be an example, just as a teacher in a conservative Protestant school would be expected to be the same.

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If it were public school, it'd be one thing. But I have to agree with SKL. There are some Catholics that take that very seriously and I'm sure this situation was in the code of conduct. I wouldn't be surprised if some parents had complained to the archdiocese.

My mom has been a teacher for almost 35 years now. At the beginning of every school year, they get a revised copy of the code of conduct and have to sign off on reading it. I'd be willing to bet he probably had to do the same.

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(apologies if this appears twice)

I've been watching this as closely as I can with my nutso life, and I've heard several times that the coach *tried* to get his first marriage annulled, but that the Archdiocese denied him. They then approached the school and saw to it that his job went away. I would like to know (and perhaps it's just too personal a question) on what basis was he requesting the annullment, and why it was denied. Because I've never heard of an annullment being denied, and I come from a HUGE Catholic family.

In general, I agree with SKL - you want to teach at a Catholic school, you abide by the Catholic doctrine (although I don't think you HAVE to be Catholic to teach there - so what do they do if you're, say, Lutheran, and are allowed to divorce?), and they have the right to hire and fire whomever they wish.

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So do they drug-test all the teachers for banned contraceptives? Just curious.... that would be consistent with Catholic official policy, wouldn't it?

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The writer framed this issue in entirely the wrong way. The question is NOT whether teachers should be afforded privacy, rights, personal discretion, etc. The question is whether a parochial institution should prohibit its agents from acting in salient defiance of the church's doctrine. To that end, Nancy, the answer to your question is no. As I said, the school looks for SALIENT departure from Catholic teachings. Use of contraceptive, while wrong in the Catholic view, would be impossible to discern, and therefore the school would not interject itself into that arena.

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Well, seems to me that it's all on a continuum - how closely they should monitor personal compliance with church doctrine - and it all hinges on how you define "salient", as in "salient defiance", then, doesn't it? How defiant is "defiant" in one's personal life and behavior that is not in direct view of any school child?

Apparently different parochial schools define it differently. I'd sure want their limits spelled out explicitly in my teaching contract before I worked for them!

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I'm commentless but have to mention WOOOOOO some news from the city I'm from and visit every year! That like never happens. Waterloo is like.. nothing in the USA lol

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