In Oakland, teachers must “demonstrate a public life consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church”

Details:

The new contract introduced by Bishop Michael Barber is intended to be less harsh than last year’s, which for the first time included a controversial requirement that teachers conform to church doctrine in their “personal” life.

Still, the new contract language begs a question that could be asked in many workplaces: Where does public life end and private life begin? Concern over the church leaders poking into teachers’ private lives created much anxiety last year in a diocese where 18 percent of the 1,217 teachers are not Catholic, according to 2014 church statistics.

What if a teacher is part of an openly married, gay couple — is that a public position? What if a teacher marches in a pro-choice rally? Would a teacher who lives with a partner out of wedlock be fired?

“No to all of those,” said Pam Shay, principal of Bishop O’Dowd High School, where parents demonstrated in support of teachers after The Chronicle reported on the details of the contract language change.

“Now, if they were wearing their O’Dowd sweatshirt and marching in a (antiabortion) demonstration or posting a picture of them smoking a joint while wearing their school sweatshirt, that might be a different story,” Shay said.

Shay said that when Barber visited with teachers at O’Dowd and other East Bay Catholic schools last spring amid the controversy, many told him that they were worried that they would be fired for being gay. But Barber told them that he wasn’t worried about gay teachers.

“He said, ‘That’s fine,’ ” Shay recalled Monday. “He said, ‘They should be welcomed in our community, too.’”

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