A posh Catholic school in Chicago who “deferred” a Lacrosse coach’s job offer when they found out she is married to a woman has decided to offer her the job in the end after the move caused a backlash.
The incident took place at Bennet Academy, which is located in Lisle, a town in DuPage County in suburban Chicago in the state of Illinois in the north-eastern USA, when Amanda Kammes was offered a job at the private Catholic high school.
However, the school reportedly rescinded its offer after Kammes filled in some paperwork and put down her wife as her emergency contact.
A spokesperson for the school, named in local reports as Jamie Moss, said: “Benet Academy respects the dignity of all human beings to follow their conscience and to live lives of their choosing.”
Moss added: “Likewise, as a Catholic school, we employ individuals whose lives manifest the essential teachings of the church in order to provide the education and faith formation of the young people entrusted to our care.”
The school quickly had to backtrack after supporters for Kammes held a rally outside the school and a petition was signed by over 3,000 alumni and members of the local community, according to local media.
The school sent a statement to NBC, saying: “The Board of Directors of Benet Academy today announced that the Academy has extended an offer to Amanda Kammes to be the school’s next girls lacrosse head coach and she has accepted the offer.”
The statement added: “The Board has heard from members of the Benet community on all sides of this issue over the past several days. We had an honest and heartfelt discussion on this very complex issue at our meeting.
“Going forward we will look for opportunities for dialogue in our community about how we remain true to our Catholic mission while meeting people where they are in their personal journey through life. For now, we hope that this is the first step in healing the Benet community.”
Kammes is also a former student at the school and was reportedly overjoyed at the result.