Terry Firma

Teachers at Catholic institutions in Ohio may be fired for “immorality.” Sounds all right, until it comes to the definition of that word.

Actually, recognizing disgusting behavior isn’t a problem at all for the easily piqued religious authorities who terminated Carla Hale. Hale is a physical-education teacher who lost her job when her mom died and she included her female partner’s name in the obit.

She’s taught at the school for two decades.

Now, I agree that’s a great example of immorality. But whose? Hales’, or the Church’s?

Students and others are rallying behind a teacher who they say was fired from a Catholic school in Clintonville [Ohio] after listing her female partner’s name in her mother’s obituary.

A petition posted yesterday on change.org seeks the reinstatement of Bishop Watterson High School physical-education teacher Carla Hale. It has gained more than 4,000 signatures. “It’s unfair that someone who cared so much about her students and her job should lose them on the basis of something she cannot even control,” the petition says. “The school claims its mission is to teach its students about love, acceptance, and tolerance, and yet it did none of this in the way it treated Ms. Hale.”

[image via outlook columbus]