Catholic High School Fires Teacher After Being Outed by Students

Student screen captured his OK Cupid file and spreed it around

According to an article appearing in DNA Chicago, a 31-year old Chicago teacher was terminated from employment at a prestigious Catholic prep school after he was “outed” and humiliated for being gay by students.

Matt Tedeschi, who instructed religious studies at St. Ignatius College Prep in the city’s Little Italy area, said that students learned he was gay after one of them found his profile on OK Cupid. Specifically, a learner captured his data and began spreading it around the school.

Word is that it caught on like wildfire.

Per DNA Chicago:

“After discovering the dating profile, the St. Ignatius student texted screenshots of Tedeschi's profile to several other St. Ignatius students, and it spread across campus. “

Discussing the profile in a group text message that Tedeschi obtained screenshots of, one student wrote: “Wow. This is SOOO juicy.”

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Mr. Tedeschi, who was an instructor at the school for nearly four years, has stated he believes he was given the ax because of his sexual orientation. Officially, homosexuality conflicts with Catholic teachings. The incident and ensuing gossip apparently embarrassed top leadership at the elite school.

This fall, Mr. Tedeshi was supposed to become tenure.

“In this place that prides itself on being a value-based school and teaches us to care for the vulnerable and marginalized, it's precisely the same religious basis that allows horrible harassment to take place,” he shared with DNA Info.

St. Ignatius put out a statement on Thursday to faculty and other school personal and denied Tedeschi was fired because of sexual orientation.

“While we cannot share details of Matt Tedeschi's term of employment, it is important for you to know that he was not fired for his sexual orientation,” the statement read. Ryan Bergin, a spokesman for the prep school cited legal concerns for not revealing more and confidentiality laws.

In response, Mr. Tedeschi again restated that it is his belief he was fired because he was gay and that it “became a problem” for the school. Tedeschi also shared he received good reviews from the school's evaluators in his time at the high school. Finally, he has stated his employee file contains no disciplinary complaints.

“I was fired for asking the administration to protect me from student harassment leveled against me precisely on the basis of my sexual orientation,” Tedeschi wrote in a statement.

Once alumni learned about his firing, many became extremely upset. That’s because St. Ignatius is home to many powerful, well known individuals and they keep in touch. Examples include actress Gina Rodriguez, comedian Bob Newhart, Ariel Investments President Mellody Hobson, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley just to name a few.

As reported in DNA Chicago, Jessica Schneider, a Chicago attorney and 2001 graduate of St. Ignatius, opened a Facebook group called: “SICP alumni in opposition to Tedeschi firing” in protest Thursday. By late Friday, more than 850 former students were added to the group.

Andrew Rayner, an openly gay 2006 graduate of the school shared on his blog that while St. Ignatius employed an openly gay teacher at the time he was at St. Ignatius, the general culture around homosexuality at the high school was “virulent.”

“I will never fully know or be able to quantify it, and I am not blaming the school for the ills of society at large, but I do wonder what role St. Ignatius played in keeping me in the closet for so long,” he wrote. ” … Who I am worried about is the student like me who is walking the halls of St. Ignatius feeling even less supported and loved than they felt before because of this incident.”

Other alumni are taking to Twitter to share their outrage.

h/t: Out Magazine