Domestic violence victim fired from Catholic school

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JMJSHJ said:
I would ask the police if the only threat to the students is this ex-husband? When they would say no, then I would ask, wouldn’t having armed security be a good measure to help ensure that all students be reasonably protected.

Let me ask you this. Couldn’t the diocese have offered the teacher a job at an undisclosed location much like what has been done in L.A.?
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What other known threats are there?
 
There is no good solution to this situation. However in the end one must put the safety of the children first.
 
estesbob said:
There is no good solution to this situation. However in the end one must put the safety of the children first.
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Judging by the posters here, it is better to fire the teacher rather than incur the insane amount of $1.25 per child/day. Utiliatarianism isn’t always synonmous with Catholic teaching.
 
JMJSHJ said:
I would ask the police if the only threat to the students is this ex-husband? When they would say no, then I would ask, wouldn’t having armed security be a good measure to help ensure that all students be reasonably protected.

Let me ask you this. Couldn’t the diocese have offered the teacher a job at an undisclosed location much like what has been done in L.A.?
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How long do you think that school will go undisclosed to the the ex-husband? Unless the children go to a different school than their mother teaches in, he will know where she works.
 
JMJSHJ said:
Judging by the posters here, it is better to fire the teacher rather than incur the insane amount of $1.25 per child/day. Utiliatarianism isn’t always synonmous with Catholic teaching.
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You assume that the security guards would be able to stop any threats by the ex. Even with security, if a identifiable threat (ie: ex-husband) injures anyone, the school will be sued into oblivion. That cost will be considerably more than $1.25 per child/day.
 
This guy doesn’t seem to respect law enforcement, already. It’s my understanding that the sheriff’s department had to come out to her home, multiple times. Clearly, this guy isn’t deterred by officers or restraining orders. I don’t see how an armed guard and a restraining order will prevent this guy from going where he pleases and doing what he pleases. While I truly do feel for this woman, I don’t see why the diocese should be required to keep a moving target amongst the kids in their care, when a KNOWN THREAT has already shown up on their doorstep…after being cautioned by law enforcement, I might add. Oh, and showing up on their doorstep landed him in jail. No, Anger Guy doesn’t pose a threat to the school…seriously??
 
In the current climate of violence in schools I can see where the Principal of the school is coming from. The employee has the potential to attract violence to the school. She is protecting her school and also the employee. Please look outside the box.
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JMJSHJ said:
They should do this for every teacher who through NO FAULT of her own gets fired.
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Interesting perspective - so if a school is forced to not renew contracts (not the same as firing) due to budget constraints than they should find all those folks a new job too? What about if the school is closing, are they obligated to find jobs for all those folks as well since it is no fault of the teacher?

The fact is she was not fired, and she continues to get paid now… They just don’t think it is in the best interest of the school to bring her back next year.
 
FreciaMarie said:
This guy doesn’t seem to respect law enforcement, already. It’s my understanding that the sheriff’s department had to come out to her home, multiple times. Clearly, this guy isn’t deterred by officers or restraining orders. I don’t see how an armed guard and a restraining order will prevent this guy from going where he pleases and doing what he pleases. While I truly do feel for this woman, I don’t see why the diocese should be required to keep a moving target amongst the kids in their care, when a KNOWN THREAT has already shown up on their doorstep…after being cautioned by law enforcement, I might add. Oh, and showing up on their doorstep landed him in jail. No, Anger Guy doesn’t pose a threat to the school…seriously??
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Thanks for the common sense and logic.🙂
 
This is a horrible situation no matter how you look at it. I worked with victims of domestic violence for almost 10 years and the most dangerous time for the victim is when they finally leave for good. This woman finally did , and her abuser did what many do; set about to systematically terrify and destroy her life. More than likely when she left her promised her he would do so, most do. He was at least partially successful. She was honest about her situation with the school, so when he showed up they could protect the students. She lost her job to protect the same students.

My sister is a teacher, and most teacher’s are on year to year contracts, not having your contract renewed is the equivalent of being fired and at least in the public school system difficult to do. It is hard not to renew renew even bad teacher’s contracts, even in right to work states like Texas, so to treat this situation as though this teacher hasn’t been fired would be less than honest. In addition, I am not sure the school can legally not renew her contract because of her husband’s actions. It seems to me the school handled him showing up well, they also could not be expected to do so , or to require the children enrolled there to live in fear of this occurring on a regular basis.

Maybe the school should have waited to see if their standing up to him worked. They did call the police,have him arrested, and he is in jail. If the school had issued a criminal trespass warning while he was there, gotten their own order , and already shown they were willing to stand up to the abuser there is a relatively high likelihood he would have stayed away from his wife at the school. Abusers tend to be bullies, and bullies tend to be cowards. My biggest problem with the school’s actions is that they acted too hastily. They tried nothing else, and victimized a woman who spent 20 years gaining the courage to walk away from a violent spouse.

For those who think that it would be easy to suspend an abusive husband’s visitation, it isn’t. Time and time again I saw abusers granted unfettered visitation, by judges, the logic being that the abuser hit the spouse not the child. They would usually have to trade the kids off in a safe and supervised situation but never did I see a spousal abuser lose visitation.

I am not a lawyer, I was a social worker who worked almost exclusively within the court system.
 
I have thought a lot about this thread and this situation. Initially I was outraged that the school seemed to blame and judge this woman as bad because of the actions of her ex-husband. I thought that while protecting students was important, that getting armed security on a full time basis was the perfect solution to 2 problems (the ex and any future incidents). Having never run a school in my life, I can admit that perhaps that it isn’t that easy.

Having said that, I would like to ask a few questions of others here. The teacher is now employed come this September at a private school in L.A. Do you honest think it was wise for that school to hire her considering that L.A. isn’t that far away and that the ex will be out this month? Do we know if he has any visitation rights?

I bring this up because I asked if the Diocese could secretly relocate her and her kids to another school in the Diocese and this was rebuffed because the ex would find out.

What options does this woman have to seek employment then?
 
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