A federal judge last week said Roncalli High School didn’t violate federal anti-discrimination laws when it didn’t renew the contract of a guidance counselor after learning of her same-sex marriage.
Now, the guidance counselor and her lawyer are appealing the decision.
Lynn Starkey worked for the southside Catholic school for 40 years until school officials chose not to renew her contract in 2019. Starkey is married to a woman, and was put on leave months after another Roncalli counselor, Shelly Fitzgerald, was also put on leave due to her same-sex marriage.
In the opinion, the judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana ruled Roncalli High School officials made their expectations of employees clear, and had the right not to renew Starkey’s contract under the ministerial exception, which bars the application of anti-discrimination laws on religious institutions’ employment strategies, according to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“One may reasonably presume that a religious school would expect faith to play a role in that work, and Roncalli expressly entrusted Starkey with the responsibility of communicating the Catholic faith to students and fostering spiritual growth,” the judge’s opinion said.
The ministerial exemption assumes Starkey worked for Roncalli as a “minister of faith.” The classification is questionable. It is rare, if ever, that the ministerial exemption applies to guidance counselors, said Kathleen DeLaney, Starkey’s lawyer, in a news release from Indianapolis-based firm DeLaney and DeLaney LLC.
The appeal will go through the Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, according to court documents.
“As far as we know, this is the first time that a court anywhere in the United States has found that the ministerial exception applies to guidance counselors,” DeLaney said in the news release. “We disagree that guidance counselors are properly characterized as ministers. There are incredibly important constitutional and civil rights issues raised by this case, and we look forward to presenting our case.”
