Posted on 05/25/2006 6:25:18 AM PDT by NYer
LAS VEGAS -- As a Bishop Gorman High School teacher for six years, Jeff Crouse relished imparting knowledge to young minds.
With his doctorate in film and television studies from the University of Warwick in England, Crouse handpicked cream-of-the-crop seniors to take his college-level classes in philosophy and film studies.
He was active outside the classroom, too _ challenging students through a Philosophy Society Club and heading the school's chapter of Amnesty International.
A former seminarian, Crouse, 45, said he appreciated the Catholic culture at Bishop Gorman because of the freedom it allowed him to develop his classes and to teach from a religious perspective.
But he discovered Bishop Gorman's absolute intolerance on some matters when he promoted himself on the popular Web site MySpace.com, where he detailed his taste in music, movies _ and men.
It somehow came to the attention of school administrators. Within a week, he was fired.
Crouse said he was called into the principal's office May 12 and told he was being terminated, per his contract, for "maintaining, by word or action, a position contrary to the ordinary teaching of the Catholic Church."
According to Crouse, when he asked what the infraction was, officials showed him material from his MySpace page, but wouldn't elaborate.
Las Vegas Diocese and school officials declined to comment on Crouse's case, citing personnel confidentiality.
Crouse would not discuss whether he regretted posting his personal profile on the Web site, or whether he plans to fight his termination.
He has found himself in the same lot as other Catholic teachers across the country who have been fired for espousing beliefs or acting contrary to church teachings.
Violating church doctrine is grounds for immediate dismissal, according to a contract all Bishop Gorman teachers sign.
Crouse wrote on his Web site that he was gay and looking for "straight-acting single men." The church teaches that same-sex relations are a sin.
The Catholic Church expects teachers to serve as role models for students and to know, act and teach in accordance with church doctrine, said Richard A. Facciolo, chancellor and superintendent of schools for the Las Vegas Diocese.
At school, Crouse did not discuss his sexual orientation and did not mention the Web site, students said.
"He's a really good teacher, very creative," said a student who asked not to be identified. "He really tries to get the kids into learning. He should have every right to do what he wants as long as he doesn't bring it into the school, which he didn't."
But Catholic educators disagree.
"The ideal is to kind of practice what we preach," said Leonard DeFiore, an education professor at Catholic University and past president of the National Catholic Education Association. "Parents entrust their children to Catholic schools with the understanding that they are going to get teachers and a curriculum that reflects that Catholic faith."
There are various examples of Catholic teachers being fired for violating church doctrine.
A Milwaukee teacher is appealing her 2004 firing for getting pregnant through in vitro fertilization. In April, a football coach at a Massachusetts school was fired for getting his girlfriend pregnant. In November, a young Brooklyn, N.Y., teacher was fired for getting pregnant out of wedlock. And in October, a Sacramento, Calif., teacher was fired after officials learned she had previously volunteered at an abortion clinic.
In earlier cases, teachers have been fired for espousing pro-choice beliefs and for getting remarried without having the previous marriage annulled.
The church teaches that sexual acts are reserved for marriage, for purposes of procreation. Anything else is considered a sin, including premarital sex, homosexual acts, using birth control or artificial means of getting pregnant.
Nonreligious employers are legally prohibited from discriminating on the basis of religion or sexual orientation, but religious organizations can hire and fire on the basis of their religious beliefs. That allows them to put restrictions on employees, including their sexual orientation, said Lee Rowland, a public advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union.
"Bishop Gorman may consider that a bona fide part of the job is to be straight, which we believe is unfortunate," Rowland said. Crouse's pages on the MySpace site contain no mention of Gorman. He identifies himself as a 45-year-old Catholic single man who "adore(s) my job and I have all summer off."
Walt Rulffes, superintendent of the Clark County School District, wouldn't speculate how the incident would have been handled if the teacher involved was a public school employee.
However, Rulffes said, "All individuals in positions of trust who work with children must be held to the highest standards."
Bishop Thomas K. Gorman was the first bishop of Reno, which included the entire state of Nevada, back in the 40s. He was made a bishop at the age of 38, the youngest bishop in America at the time.
He became bishop of Dallas-Fort Worth in 1954, and confirmed me in 1962.
I think we'll see BXVI heading there next, after he gets the seminaries cleaned up . . .
>>'But he was such a good teacher' ranks right up there with 'he was always such a good boy, his mom said' and 'Hitler was nice to his friends.' // roll eyes//<<
Have you seen "The Producers"?
Hitler was a great painter too.
Sometimes you don't even need a decoder ring to figure out the bias...
The vast majority of pedophiles are homo. No one can argue that point except, of course, a homo who will swear that heteros are just as bad as they are. The few married men who are pedophiles are actually homos who married to give the apperance of normalcy. Very few hetero men are pedophiles.
I didn't realize that. I do see almost daily stories involving teachers going after students of the opposite sex though. Do you have any statistics or studies reflecting a greater propensity of homosexuals trying to influence students than heterosexuals?
The one was fired under mysterious circumstances in the early 1990s. This was still during the time when sex abuse cases were scrupulously covered up. Based on the reading material this teacher had in his office--homosexual "sex ed" with photos--he was at the very least corrupting the morals of minors.
Well, I can't argue the nexus one way or the other, but the issue of teacher/student corruption and relationships seems very pronounced these days, regardless of sexual preference.
If a guy is fondling teenage boys, I don't care if he's the greatest teacher on the planet.
Absolutely! But the same goes for heterosexual fondling. None of that should be tolerated.
As for homosexuals in general as teachers, I don't have a problem with it as long as they don't even obliquely reference it or make it obvious.
Again we agree, but again I say the same holds for heterosexual teachers.
The teachers I mentioned above were all suspected as or known to be "gay-birds" by the students. I may have had other homosexual teachers that we never found out about--and that's the way it should be.
Well, as a child raised in the '40s and '50s, I too thought I could point out homosexuals. It was only later I learned it was not always so easy. But did these "gay-birds" provide a proper education? My concern is not whether a gay or lesbian is teaching, but whether he or she is attempting to influence the children into their lifestyle. I certainly don't believe that just knowing that a teacher is a homosexual has any bearing on the future sexual preferences of children. Overt activities aimed at children are absolutely not acceptable.
Yep. And the statistics show that married heterosexuals are much less likely to abuse children, per capita, than non-celebate homosexuals.
Any links?
The Vatican is powerless to stop the plague of homosexual sex abuse unleashed by rogue American bishops who are in crypto-schism and will not obey. Many of these bishops are STILL covering up (eg. Mahoney in LA, Hubbard in Albany) and they are allowed to get away with it by the civil authorities and the liberal media. Why? Because these homo-friendly bishops are politically connected and big-time Democrat supporters. You'll recall that Cardinal Mahoney gave the blessing at Al Gore's DNC convention in 2000.
First, I'm not aware of any current cover-ups, as the laws are pretty tough on both the perpetrators and the enablers, and it is much easier psychologically for those abused to come forward. Second, there is ample evidence the Vatican has known about these scandals for years. And I don't know why the Vatican is so powerless.
There sure has been. The rate of sexual abuse among public school teachers is probably about an order of magnitude higher than among Catholic priests. Yet the issue is rarely heard in the media--let alone given saturation coverage.
Links?
You may be right, but I would benefit from the studies you are speaking from. Almost every story I see involving pedophiles seems to involve young girls from 3 or 4 on up. Almost every case I see in the media re: teacher/student relationships involves heterosexual contact. As for child pornography, I saw one story indicating that girls were substantially more likely to be the victims than boys. But you may have information to the contrary.
Education is garbage if it's not imparting the truth. Are you implying that Catholics should apologize for actually believing Catholic dogma to be -- gasp -- true?
As I Catholic, I send my children to Catholic schools first and foremost so they will receive an education that is consistent with the Catholic worldview. They can get a good education in secular subjects at a lot of places; even in a public school, but they can only get an education consisten with the Catholic worldview in a Catholic school.
Now if only they had taken that same stance with their priests over the years.
When you perfect the WayBack machine that will allow all of us to travel back in time to undo old sins and errors of judgement, get back to us. I think you'll sell a lot of them all over the world.
Yes, I remember. I went to Catholic school through the 10th grade. Religion was first and foremost the important courses. I remember in the Ninth grade, I wanted to take Spanish was was told I had to learn Latin first. I suspect there are many varied experiences.
When you perfect the WayBack machine that will allow all of us to travel back in time to undo old sins and errors of judgement, get back to us. I think you'll sell a lot of them all over the world.
As long as folks refer to something that hurts children for their entire lives "errors of judgment", but believe good teachers who happen to be homosexual are an absolute danger to the students, we will continue to have this pattern through enablement.
I will. Nothing would have been said about it and they would've let him keep teaching as long as he didn't rape too many kids.
I suspect we will start seeing many more of these just and legitimate discrimination stories...
The Catholic Church maintains that divorce is a sin...so why are Catholic lawyers who handle divorce excommunicated?
Go away -your pro-homosexual cheerleading is not given platform on FR.
The moral relative argument you attempt to give life to by conflating the implied evil "errors of judgment" with the claimed innocuous "happen to be homosexual" status of an indivuidual misses the mark completely by ignoring the real evil -the effects of the homosexual disorder -- WHICH is what legitimately premises concern in both cases and premises the legitimate action to terminate the teacher.
Those suffering the homosexual disorder are rightly and legitimately discriminated against. BOTH -be it clergy or educator -those suffering the homosexual disorder are legitimately discriminated against AND legitimately discriminated against for good reason -they suffer a severe disorder that predisposes them to enagage in disordered activity:
The study results show overwhelming findings that objectively one must draw but only one legitimate conclusion -homosexual predation was the primary activity that the sexual abuse was evidenced...
Some argue that the homosexual acts were not homosexual because only children were physically or psychologically raped of their innocence -they have as yet no 'orientation' and or mature sexuality or that the subjective rainbow gender spectrum rather than the binary 'sex' is an appropriate sexual identifier (very similar to the abortion argument claiming a baby is but a lump of flesh)? Some argue that the homosexual acts were not done by homosexuals (as if homosexual activity that defines homosexuals somehow does not now define homosexuals)?
It is weird logic to ignore that which specifically differentiates those who suffer from the homosexual disorder that predisposes them to homosexual activity and or those that actually participate in the activity and argue that this has nothing to do with homosexuals and or homosexual activity?
Regardless the politically correct illogical argumentative gymnastics and contrived hoops that some may posit I jump through -I myself will remain standing on Terra firma --simply put, the discussion involves activity -the abuse a majority of which was homosexual -the study was objectively scientific -not subjectively politically correct -as such a homosexual act was categorized a homosexual act and same sex sexual activity was identified as such...
The homosexual disorder is objectively defined by a predisposition to the activity... Homosexual activity is objectively defined by the activity -not the cause -not the intent -not anything morally irrelevant... Homosexual activists may gnash their teeth all they want -the facts speak for themselves...
Some still choose to ignore the obvious -regardless, the ignorance and or denial in this area will be overcome in the Church -the only question is will secular society get a clue or will it continue with its head in the politically correct sands of moral relativism?
In summary, objectively as to the sexual abuse of children all that is known is the activity -objectively, the majority of activity was homosexual predation -period...
Small excerpt:
The study produced some important findings about the nature of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.
- Unlike in the general population, more males than females were allegedly. In fact, there was a significant difference between genders, with four out of five alleged victims being male.
- The majority of alleged victims were post-pubescent, with only a small percentage of priests receiving allegations of abusing young children.
- The allegations of sexual abuse involved a variety of sexual acts, and most of the priests involved were alleged to have committed multiple acts per victim. Indeed, much of the sexual abuse reported involved serious sexual offenses.
- According to the allegations of sexual abuse, the most frequent context of the sexual incidents occurred during a social event. Additionally, many of the priests with allegations of abuse socialized with the family of the alleged victim.
- The most common place of occurrence was the residence of the priest though incidents of abuse allegedly occurred in a wide variety of locations.
I note again clearly that this study confirms what other also not overly publicized or widely known or acknowledged studies have found -homosexual predation...
This guy (and others in the same lot) can work for a non-Catholic school. But I bet he files a lawsuit and tries to force them to take him back - or at least give him a big settlement.
Specfically, how so? Are you implying that this guy is the only one qualified to teach these courses?
Now if only they had taken that same stance with their priests over the years.
True, that would have been better. But they didn't. I'm glad to see the church is taking a strong stance in this case so a similar error is not repeated.
This is like, so unfair! Why do teachers in Catholic schools have to act like Catholics?
He has found himself in the same lot as other Catholic teachers across the country who have been fired for espousing beliefs or acting contrary to church teachings.
The church teaches that same-sex relations are a sin.
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