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Photo: Courtesy photo Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Image 2 of 4 Students at Eastside Catholic High School participate in a sit-in at the school in Sammamish. Students protested after Vice Principal Mark Zmuda was forced to resign after officials with the Archdiocese of Seattle discovered he entered into a same-sex marriage earlier this year. less Students at Eastside Catholic High School participate in a sit-in at the school in Sammamish. Students protested after Vice Principal Mark Zmuda was forced to resign after officials with the Archdiocese of ... more Photo: Courtesy photo / special to seattlepi.com Image 3 of 4 Students at Eastside Catholic High School march to 228th Avenue SE during a walkout and sit-in at the school in Sammamish. Students protested after Vice Principal Mark Zmuda was forced to resign after officials with the Archdiocese of Seattle discovered he entered into a same-sex marriage earlier this year. less Students at Eastside Catholic High School march to 228th Avenue SE during a walkout and sit-in at the school in Sammamish. Students protested after Vice Principal Mark Zmuda was forced to resign after ... more Photo: Courtesy photo Image 4 of 4 Catholic students plan big 'Z-Day' protest 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

Students from Eastside Catholic High School and other Catholic secondary schools delivered a message outside the Archdiocese of Seattle on Saturday afternoon: We are not going away, and we are taking our protest to a new level.

“We care too much about Mr. Zmuda to let this go,” said Ian Edwards, a senior at Eastside Catholic, after speaking at the second demonstration in as many weeks outside the old chancery of the archdiocese.

With social media at their disposal, the students are thinking big. They plan to organize, nationwide, a “Z-Day” on Jan. 31 to protest the forced resignation of Eastside vice principal Mark Zmuda after his same-sex marriage last summer.

“We encourage students, at Catholic schools or otherwise, as well as any other impassioned individuals, to proudly wear the color orange on that day. In so doing, we will be showing solidarity with Mark Zmuda, as well as expressing our hopes for an enlightened perspective on issues of sexuality in the Catholic Church,” said a statement read by Edwards and other students.

The Archdiocese of Seattle has greeted the students’ protests with icy silence. “We’ve tried to reach out, but not heard back,” said Julia Burns, a senior at Eastside Catholic. They have received no response to requests for a meeting with Archbishop J. Peter Sartain. They have received no outreach from their own administrators or the Catholic school system.

The highly regarded prep school in Sammamish says in the careers section of its website: “Eastside Catholic does not discriminate on a basis of an employee or applicant’s race, religion, creed, color, sex, age, national origin, disability, marital status, sexual orientation or any other status or condition protected by federal, state and local law.”

Still, teachers at the school pledge that they will “live a lifestyle compatible with Catholic moral values, exercise professional conduct consistent with Catholic teachings, and promote the Catholic identity of the school through personal example.”

In Zmuda’s case, the students charge, the archdiocese has chosen to cherry-pick which “Catholic moral values” it will enforce, while ignoring others.

“We firmly believe that the decision to marry, or not marry, should never preclude any otherwise qualified individual from working at the school,” said the students’ statement. “When Pope Francis opines that the Church is big enough for homosexuals, one would hope Catholic institutions begin to reflect those sentiments.”

“The Gospel compels us to demonstrate compassion and love in all our actions, and Mark Zmuda has always done just that.”

As about 100 people gathered across from St. James Cathedral on Saturday, they set down a list of challenges to Eastside Catholic administrators and the Archdiocese. These included:

— “We expect a transparent and HONEST statement that accurately addresses how this decision (removing Zmuda) was reached, what players were involved, and their rationale for doing so in light of Catholic social teachings. The students, alumni and community members deserve an apology for the opaque and misleading fashion in which this difficult situation was handled.”

— “In future matters, we ask that the Archdiocese, or any Catholic school under its purview, conducts itself accordingly — that the review of ANY employee judged to have broken Catholic doctrinal teachings (birth control, cohabitation, matters of sexuality) will henceforth include a holistic review of the individual’s job performance, character and embodiment of Catholic social teachings before a final decision regarding employment standing is made.”

— “No school, in conjunction with the Archdiocese or acting upon its own accord, will ever again make any similar decision based strictly on doctrinal matters, as the draconian enforcement of a set of oft-ignored dogmatic mores is no longer relevant to the 21st Century Church.”

If Sartain ever comes out and talks to the students, or pays a visit to Eastside Catholic, he will get an earful of the social gospel.

“Preach what you believe, but taking someone’s job away does not represent love and justice as taught by the Church,” said Charlie Shafer, a senior at Seattle Prep. The gathering Saturday included students from Prep and Holy Names Academy as well as Eastside Catholic.

Zeena Rivera, a senior at Holy Names, added: “I’d ask him (Sartain): Why are you doing this? Why is this in any way related to what it means to be Catholic? I’ve been Catholic for the past 17 years. I don’t see that this falls in line with Catholic teachings of how to live.”

The sight of Catholic students going to school in orange will raise some eyebrows. Orange is the color of The Netherlands’ Protestant royal family, the House of Orange. The Orange Order is a Protestant fraternal organization in Canada. The Loyal Order of Orange is a centuries-old Protestant group in Northern Ireland.

But orange is the school color at Eastside Catholic, and of the swim team that “Mr. Z” coached. Swimmers at a match on Dec. 20 had pro-Z messages written on their backs.

A banner supporting the “Keep Mr. Z” campaign hangs at Seattle Prep. The campaign has also garnered support from students at public high schools.in the Seattle area.

It has posted the following information sites: Facebook.com/KeepMr.Z2013 and Twitter.com/KeepMrZ2013.

The campaign has begun to draw national media attention but a supporter, Seattle Prep sophomore Thomas Lange, noted: “We are not doing this to get on TV or be famous. It is time for the Church to change its attitude. We are going to stick around, no matter what.”