Ignatius Fired Gay Teacher In 2017 — Has Anything Changed Since?

CHICAGO — Matt Tedeschi says he loved his job teaching religious studies and French at St. Ignatius College Prep, considered by some to be Chicago's premier Catholic high school. Yet after four years, and on the verge of gaining tenure, Tedeschi was fired. The primary reason, he said, is that his sexual orientation became public after students “outed” and harassed him.

Tedeschi was fired in March 2017. There is, however, more to the story, he said in an extended account recently shared on Medium. And because he believes the school has made little to no change in response to his open letter, a rally he held in front of the school and alumni calls for change, Tedeschi says he is now ready to share more about his termination, some of the school’s “bizarre” responses and broader issues with the school's culture.

The former teacher said he maintained generally positive relationships with administrators during his time there, and that all his performance reviews were positive, including one he says was conducted just one month before he was fired.

Tedeschi seems to have been well-liked by both faculty and students.

"Matt was a great teacher, the kids loved him," said a former teacher who worked with Tedeschi. "He was open, honest and fair. He listened to the kids' opinions and concerns."

According to a former student, "Mr. T was a very good teacher because he was clearly passionate about what he was teaching and he wanted his students to succeed."

"I was excited to start at Ignatius because I believed it offered a well-rounded education that would lead students to develop intellectually and ethically," Tedeschi said.

But things soured in the spring of 2016, when he said a senior student at the school misrepresented his age to gain access to the popular dating site OkCupid. There, he came across the teacher's dating profile and learned that Tedeschi is gay. The student took screenshots of the profile and distributed them to others, effectively "outing" Tedeschi to the student body. That, according to Tedeschi, led to harassment both in class and online.

Then when Tedeschi reported this misconduct, he said administrators turned it around and blamed him.

He requested a meeting with Principal Brianna Latko.

"She told me these were just kids being kids and I should have known better. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing," Tedeschi said.

After consulting with school president Michael Caruso and vice president of development John Chandler, Tedeschi said the principal told him that the students would not be punished.

St. Ignatius, in a written response to Chicago Patch regarding a number of questions regarding topics raised in this article, said "a number of questions about interactions with our leadership team ... are based on inaccurate or false information."

Then some students began to use class projects and presentations to make note of their teacher's sexual orientation, Tedeschi said.

"There wasn’t much I could do," Tedeschi said. "I just couldn’t believe top administrators would so undermine one of their teachers like that."

The harassment from students continued on social media. Some students, Tedeschi said, informed him that one of their sophomore peers publicly insulted him on Twitter, ending a long rant with an apparent threat that read: "Let's not forget I have screenshots that could end you."

The student then posted a photo of Tedeschi taken from his OkCupid profile in the same thread.

The action caused Tedeschi to request another meeting with the principal. This time, Tedeschi said she told him that there was no way to know the tweets were about him, but Tedeschi countered that his photo was even included in the thread. Then, he said, Latko claimed he couldn't assume the photo on Twitter was related to the screenshots a senior took of that same photo from his OkCupid profile, because sophomores don't talk to seniors.

Tedeschi said he mentioned that the student handbook prescribed certain consequences for student misconduct, but the principal told him, "Matt, those are just guidelines."

"The student handbook is very clear with regard to expected student behavior and its potential consequences," the school’s statement said.

In February 2017 — about a month before Tedeschi's firing — another gay teacher who had been at the school for 26 years was fired. According to Tedeschi, the educator was "beloved by generations of Ignatius students, entire families and the faculty and staff."

Shortly after, Tedeschi said a small group of seniors brought up the firing in class.

"They were a really tight-knit class that loved interacting with one another. But that day they were really anxious and saddened. They were so upset they couldn't focus," Tedeschi said.

He says they asked him to talk about what had taken place, but he said they shouldn't speculate about the teacher's firing. Eventually, he did allow them to have a discussion, but only about how they were feeling.

Reporting A Sexual Assault In Class

During the course of that discussion, a student asked to share a comment, which Tedeschi allowed. Without mentioning names, the student reported that a male Ignatius student had sexually assaulted a female Ignatius student off campus. Tedeschi said he was shocked.

"It took me a second to realize what had just happened," he explained.

Tedeschi asked if the student had reported the incident to anyone. He remembers the student said a group of students approached the administration about the issue, but they felt nothing had been done. Tedeschi assured the class the administration cared for students and there must be some mistake, and said he would report the incident as well.

He did. A few weeks later, he was fired.

A student who was in that same class said this in an email to Chicago Patch:

Mr. T was completely unaware that this discussion was going to happen and I think he handled it in the best way possible ... He created a setting in which we could have a serious conversation where students felt heard and safe. There are not many safe spaces in Saint Ignatius in the first place, so to have a teacher provide a safe space to share opinions and then see him get fired almost immediately for this was very disheartening.

St. Ignatius is one of a number of institutions that require teachers and others in positions of authority to report any suspected abuse.

From the 2016-17 SICP faculty handbook:

Every employee is a mandated reporter under the Illinois Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act (the “Reporting Act”). Teachers, social workers, school nurses, psychologists, or other school personnel who willfully fail to report suspected child abuse or neglect cases can be found guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.

The Firing

At first, Tedeschi was told his contract would not be renewed because he had "allowed" the sensitive discussion to take place and because of his online profile from the year prior. The principal also said that the school had already responded to the incident he reported.

When Tedeschi sought clarification about his dismissal from one of his superiors, he said he was told the administration had planned to fire him solely because of his dating profile, even before the principal was informed of the class discussion. Once he knew that, he said, Latko and vice president of mission Lukas Laniauskas called Tedeschi and told him he was fired effective immediately. Their reasoning was that he had been "insubordinate" by seeking answers from a superior.

The school said in its response that it's both the president and principal who sign teachers' contracts and "make final decisions regarding employee retention."

"This is an infrequent occurrence," they wrote of the Tedeschi situation. "The teaching contract explicitly states reasons an employee can be dismissed during the term of the contract."

Tedeschi's firing not only upset some at St. Ignatius, but his story also received widespread attention through a detailed report from DNAinfo Chicago and attracted the interest of LGBTQ leaders throughout the country.

"It is never a good situation for the employee who was terminated in these types of situations," said Marianne Duddy-Burke of Dignity USA, the largest LGBTQ Catholic advocacy group in the world. "I don't know of a single situation in which the institution has acknowledged their wrongdoing, but things were particularly heinous in this situation."

Duddy-Burke points to St. Ignatius' lack of meaningful discipline against a student for bullying a teacher.

"There, that behavior was condoned,” Duddy-Burke said. "The amount of firepower that was brought against Matt, who was working hard toward making changes in policies and tactics — it was really awful to see how the institution put up those barriers while protecting themselves and dehumanizing this teacher who was loved by the students."

The public responses from the attention this received prompted the school to release a statement indicating that Tedeschi was not fired for his 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," read the statement, which was obtained by DNAinfo after the article was published.

When asked for comment, Tedeschi replied, "Unfortunately, that’s not surprising. What else would you expect them to say?"

Tedeschi added, "I think administrators wanted me gone because my sexual orientation became public knowledge, the harassment was continuing and they knew they didn’t responsibly deal with the student harassers from the start. And it didn’t help that most of the students came from affluent families. It was simply more convenient to get rid of me."

"I don’t think a straight teacher would have been terminated in the same circumstances. I believe I was fired for the mix of being gay and getting harassed. Discrimination is a complex thing, but no less real for being complex."

In content published on the school website and sent home to parents, the school wrote that:

"Our school handbook states: Saint Ignatius strives to provide a supportive environment where all students and faculty are respected on the basis of personal characteristics that include ethnicity, socioeconomic status, physical ability, sexual orientation and gender" (see below).

But Tedeschi said the statement as released exists nowhere in school materials. Most of the quotation comes from the student handbook, he said, which applies only to students. The words "and faculty" do not exist in the handbook, he said, and were simply added in by the administrators. He contends there is no anti-discrimination policy covering "sexual orientation" in either the faculty or administration handbooks.

Here's the relevant section of the student handbook, with no reference to "faculty":

Any Response To Parting Demands?

Tedeschi’s open letter called for an open LGBT student group at the school. As a result, the school decided to allow its more or less "underground" group to "come out of the closet," he said.

"That was good," Tedeschi said, "but my understanding is that the group is singled out to answer to the VP of Mission, whereas all other student organizations don’t have to do that."

Laniauskas was on the phone call when Tedeschi was terminated, he said.

The school's response said that "a number of student formation programs have always reported to the Vice President for Mission. They include spiritual and personal formation groups."

Tedeschi detailed other responses from school officials in his recently released account, including an administrator asking an alumnus who was concerned over Tedeschi’s termination who had paid him to call the school.

The former student, Patrick Metcalfe, shared a phone exchange he had with Caruso publicly.

"He directly asked more than once who was paying me," Metcalfe said.

"Yeah, they came up with some pretty bizarre stuff," Tedeschi said. "Especially in this post-truth age, when people with power attempt to discredit their critics by claiming they were paid, that kind of rhetoric is worrisome."

The school denied that it treated the former student disrespectfully.

"All members of the school’s leadership team respond to faculty and students in a professional way," part of the school's statement to Patch read. "Our President and Principal have not responded and would not respond to any student, parent and faculty member or alumni inquiry in a cavalier or disrespectful manner."

St. Ignatius' Return To Conservatism?

Just after Tedeschi was fired, former students say the school invited Jason Jones, an alt-right pro-life Catholic activist and filmmaker, to speak at one of their "Ignatian Values Days" events. According to comments left by students and alumni on an online petition, during the speech Jones asked the female students who were present to promise never to have an abortion.

A recent graduate who was there that day says the administration displayed "a complete lack of judgment" by inviting Jones. The former student, who wished not to be named, also sees a double standard in firing Tedeschi, while inviting the controversial Jones.

She points out that Tedeschi was fired in part for a supposedly "inappropriate discussion."

"If that’s the case, then the administration should have held that standard for EVERY SINGLE staff member involved in bringing Jason Jones to Ignatius," the alum wrote in a statement. "[I]f I am being honest, I think whoever brought this man in should have been fired since Ignatius is so eager to pull the trigger with 'sensitive conversations.'

"It is so clear that Saint Ignatius did not truly care about the fact that there was a controversial topic being discussed in Mr. T's class — they were concerned with the fact that students were complaining about how the administration does the bare minimum in sensitive cases," the student wrote.

St. Ignatius' response pointed out that Jones is one of many recent guest speakers who touch on "issues of importance within our Catholic tradition." Others who have spoken at the school include Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, of Homeboy Industries, who spoke on his work helping Los Angeles gang members; Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ, the noted anti-death penalty advocate and Dolores Huerta, Co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association with Cesar Chavez.

The administration did issue an apology over the school's loudspeaker system after the Jones speech. According to the former student, the statement was not genuine, but "more so a 'I'm sorry YOU got offended' sort of thing."

A former teacher whose time at Ignatius overlapped with Tedeschi’s — the same one quoted above — seemed to agree with the student’s assessment of the school, but was more blunt:

The "current president" is the problem, the former teacher said.

The school's president, Michael Caruso, is a Jesuit priest who began his role in 2010. The former Ignatius teacher described an environment in which what the president said had to be followed, with very little room for disagreement.

Ignatius was "not a place where dialogue happens, not where consultation happens," said the teacher.

"Whoever had money on the Board [of Trustees] had the ear of the president," the former teacher said when asked about wealth at the school. Regarding students, the teacher asserted, "there was a sense that if a parent had money, they got better treatment," whereas "kids who did not have money got expelled."

"I was getting more and more frustrated with how conservative the school was getting. You couldn't bring up any issue and speak the truth of what was happening," the teacher said.

The former employee added that the school did not adequately address the concerns of its students of color when they asked for changes, and that the administration opposed "any protests, demonstrations or anything that would upset the old-time tradition."

A recent Ignatius alumna who identifies as LGBT said that she believes the school has become less tolerant of LGBT issues in the last 5–10 years. Shortly before she enrolled, she says, "they had a support group for LGBT [students] that was eliminated."

The student, who also wished to remain unnamed, said St. Ignatius provided a "horrible environment to learn about myself and coming of age."

In their statement to Patch, the school wrote:

Saint Ignatius College Prep takes pride in the diversity of our student, faculty and alumni community. We continue to develop programs, workshops and outreach to enhance and celebrate diversity on many levels. For example, we are currently partnering with the ADL on its 'No Place for Hate' initiative. Our Mission Statement calls us to respect all members of our community, who reflect the diversity of society.

Needed Changes

Tedeschi attempted to take legal action against the school "to encourage some measure of change," but said Ignatius avoided liability after it invoked the "ministerial exception." He said this is "basically a legal loophole that removes anti-discrimination protections for employees who perform any 'religious' duties at religious institutions."

Tedeschi also reported the school to the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education.

He said that although the principal told him the school had already responded to the student sexual assault report, he was unsure whether administrators conducted a proper investigation, and that using the report to terminate him was worrying.

The OCR, Tedeschi said, was unable to investigate because Ignatius does not receive federal funding.

"Once again, they were able to avoid an investigation and an opportunity for change," Tedeschi said.

Tedeschi’s written account contains a list of 10 changes he said the school could implement if it was serious about becoming truly inclusive of all students and employees.

One of them includes more visibility and open discussion around the well-being of LGBT students, he said.

The recent LGBT alumna agrees. She says the school advocated respect for various ethnic groups as part of its diversity and inclusion focus, but that there was never any mention of LGBT people and their unique struggles.

"Recognition of the LGBT community would be great. The littlest amount could provide support," she said.

Another proposal, Tedeschi says, is "a true anti-discrimination policy for employees that has teeth."

He says the school updated its non-discrimination policy in early 2018 to include veteran and military status, but that sexual orientation and gender identity are still not protected.

"I find it telling that the school could add in words for a press release, but couldn't find the necessary language to protect LGBT employees," he said.

But a written policy isn't enough, he contends.

"There needs to be an entire culture shift — effective harassment reporting and grievance procedures, new people at the top, more faculty participation and power-sharing, no more kowtowing to rich parents — a true regeneration of the fundamental, underlying values of the school."

Need For A Catholic School Union

But the best method for ensuring workers' rights at the school, Tedeschi says, is to have a union.

He said there are many Catholic teachers' unions around the country, and that Chicago was one of the first cities to try to unionize Catholic schools in the 1960s and 70s.

"I'm not naive about how difficult it would be to organize, but it's certainly not impossible. This has been done elsewhere," he said.

Tedeschi also said he is aware of some state legislators who would be willing to lend support, but that they would prefer to see a grassroots movement of Catholic teachers first.

Tedeschi says "the right to organize is fundamental in Catholic social teaching. I had to teach this to my students, and yet they would ask why their own teachers didn't have meaningful representation. It was disorienting to teach one thing while living another."

He adds his hope that Jesuit leadership and Chicago's Cardinal Blase Cupich will take an interest in "repairing" the school's culture.

"I certainly hope they will be willing to take an honest look at what's going on at Ignatius. I hope they take an interest in ensuring both faculty and staff are treated with dignity and respect, and have a robust amount of input in determining their own working conditions," Tedeschi said.

"A sharp hierarchy of power has harmed the most vulnerable members of the Catholic Church in the past, and it is continuing to do so."