Stood up for its beliefs

I want to express my support to Mount St. Mary Academy for its willingness to stand up for what it believes in with the recent firing of Ms. Tippi McCullough.

Jim Barre Jr. of Fayetteville made some very valid points in his letter last week. She may have been an excellent teacher but she did, in fact, sign a contract with the school and received pay for teaching and modeling the values of the school, and parents were paying their hardearned money to make sure their children were being taught to uphold those values.

Isn’t that the way all jobs are? If you don’t agree to uphold the values and responsibilities of the company you work for, you are usually let go. It sounds to me like the school kept her much longer than it probably should have. It was likely no secret that she was living in such a way that was contrary to the Catholic Church’s teachings.

Although I am not a Catholic myself, I see this as being an important aspect of the freedom of religion issue, one of the very principles on which our country was founded—the freedom to believe how one chooses. No matter what religion you are, or are not, we all need to remember that when we take away Mount St. Mary Academy’s freedom to stand up for what it believes in that we are also taking away the freedom we have of believing however we choose to believe and live according to those beliefs.

I think Ms. McCullough could have saved herself being fired by being truthful about what she was doing and going and looking for another job. CAPRI DILLON

Hot Springs