Lawmakers Want Investigation Of San Francisco Catholic High Schools Over Teacher Morality Clauses
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Two Bay Area lawmakers are seeking an investigation of working conditions at high schools administrated by the Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, over the archbishop's proposed morality clauses for teachers.
Assemblymembers Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) and Kevin Mullin (D-San Mateo) are urging the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee and Assembly Judiciary Committee to launch an investigation.
"California cannot become a laboratory for discrimination under the guise of religion," the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent Monday. They said the rules "set a dangerous precedent for workers' rights through manipulations of law that deprive employees of civil rights guaranteed to all Californians."
Last week, Ting and Mullin were among eight Bay Area lawmakers who sent Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone a letter calling the proposal "divisive" and urging him to drop the clauses from the teachers' handbook.
Cordileone responded to the lawmakers' letter last week, saying he respects their right to hire whoever they want to advance their mission and seeks the same respect.
The archbishop's proposal asks "administrators, faculty and staff of any faith or of no faith, are expected to arrange and conduct their lives so as not to visibly contradict, undermine or deny" church teachings, including opposition to abortion, contraception and homosexuality.