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VOLUME LXV ISSUE iv
ARCHBISHOP RIORDAN HIGH SCHOOL
SERVING RIORDAN SINCE 1949
April 2015 THE NEWSPAPER OF CRUSADER COUNTRY
Student, trainer save coach’s l i f e a f t e r h e a r t a t t a c k o n f i e l d By Chang Liu ’18
Coach Harrington with Jordan Fox ’18 and trainer, Erin Stovall
Photo courtesy Jack Harty-Connell On Feb. 5 around 4:30 p.m., school athletic trainer Erin Stovall, along with Jordan Fox ’18, rushed to the field after several Junior Varsity and Varsity baseball players with panic-
stricken faces reported that Coach Neil Harrington had collapsed. Adults blocked the scene so that no one would interfere with lifesaving attempts. The scene was tense.
As Fox ran with the Automatic External Defibrillator (AED), the situation had gone from bad to worse. “When I got to the scene, first thing I checked was if he had a pulse. He had no pulse, I had no chance to panic and went into life saving mode,” said Stovall. “By the time I got back, I felt sick to the stomach from adrenaline.” “I felt that this is it, I won’t get a second chance,” said Jordan Fox. Principal Vittorio Anastasio said that both of them were heroes that day. Having first hand experience of what it feels like to have a heart condition, Anastasio fears the Coach might not have made it if it wasn’t for Stovall and Fox. During a heart attack, every second counts. In a matter of four
to five minutes, a person could be brain dead or have permanent brain damage. Anastasio said, “I am thankful for these two heroic members of our community and glad that Coach has a chance to recover.” Anastasio honored Fox at a school assembly and he received cheers from students and staff for his heroic act. “When I heard that coach is well, I was inspired the school trainer was able to save a person’s life,” said Marcus Escobar ‘18. James McCarthy and Riordan alumnus Matt Craig took over JV coaching duties while Harrington recovered, but he returned, and the team is glad to he is back.
Archbishop requests teachers support church teachings By Roman Peregrino ’18
The school community is on edge as it faces the proposed changes in the teacher handbook, to be implemented by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone. From a high-level, the changes have to do with social morality clauses, and the request from the archbishop for teachers to live and portray a Catholic lifestyle at school and in their homes. In a letter from the archbishop, Cordileone warns that “all extramarital sexual relationships are gravely evil and that these include adultery, masturbation, fornication, the viewing of pornography and homosexual relations.” Cordileone goes on to say that teachers affected by the changes have to “refrain from public support of any cause or issue that is explicitly or implicitly contrary to that which the Catholic Church holds to be true.” ARHS Math Department Chair Ottilie Valverde said, “The archbishop was trying to remind teachers of the high calling of their profession. He said, ‘Teachers help students grow into the people God created them to be.’ He also said, ‘Teachers help lead students to holiness in their lives and to eventually become saints.’” While some see those reasons as noble, some of the changes and language have caused a great deal of concern. “Ethics and morality bring up the most concern,” said Phillip Carrion, residential advisor, who is not opposed to the archbishop’s proposed contract language. One of the biggest concerns is that in the proposed contract, the archbishop wants the teachers to become “ministers of the Catholic faith.”
“In one way, in a Catholic school, all teachers are ministers, but the word minister also has a legal connotation which does not provide a teacher/ employee some legal standing to which that person is entitled,” Valverde said. Student body president Elliot Lloyd ‘15 said, “If teachers become treated as ministers, [they will be] stripped of their rights under the law and of their worker protections.” Lloyd gave examples of the teachers’ new lack of rights. “For example, if an employee becomes disabled and is fired, demoted or refused accommodations because of that, then the employee cannot sue. If the employee is fired, demoted, or sanctioned because the employer takes a dislike to him or her, the employer cannot sue. [As a minister,] the individual is completely dependent on the discretion and goodwill of the employer. This opens a door for unfair employment actions for which the employee has no legal recourse.” Michael Vezzali, Riordan English Department Chair and one of three school site union representatives, said he is opposed to the word “minister” being inserted into the teacher handbook. He prefers to be called a teacher. Vezzali said that during various meetings, it was clear the archbishop was listening to him and others when they voiced their concerns. Another concern is the archbishop’s take on homosexuality within the school system. In his official statement, the archbishop requests those affected by the morality clause to “affirm and
believe the teaching of the Church about homosexual acts being contrary to the natural law.” Although teachers are taking the brunt of the changes, students are also affected. John Ahlbach, theology teacher, said the problem is “what [the archbishop] said about people who are LGBTQ is unscientific, NOT iron-clad Church doctrine, as it is quoted from an out-dated Catechism. The ‘gravely evil’ label is hurtful to our students and faculty and staff who are LGBTQ, and, under some circumstances, could do severe damage to young people who are LGBTQ, whose suicide rate is already five times that of those who are heterosexual.” Valverde said, “We have had homosexual students, students of gay or lesbian parents and we have never treated them any differently nor valued them any less, and we have loved and cared for them in the same way that we have cared for and nurtured every student and every family.” Lloyd said, “The changes the archbishop proposes predominantly affect teachers, however, we as students will now be subject to certain environments that single out and condemn students in our community who commit ‘grave evils’ and they will not be accepted. The archdiocese should not want a hostile environment that promotes fear and censorship. No student should be subject to such an environment.” Archbishop Cordileone went on record saying, “[The teachers must] conform their hearts, minds and consciences, as well as their public and
private behavior, ever more closely to the truths taught by the Catholic Church.” That, among other comments the archbishop has made, and the contract changes in general, have caused rifts between the archbishop and the people he is trying to confront with these changes, community members contend. With this in mind, Riordan and the three other local schools affected Marin Catholic, Sacred Heart Cathedral, and Serra – have each been represented by a number of students and faculty attempting to amend the wording. Lloyd said, “Within Riordan, at a teacher level, union meetings are going on to find a solution. Teachers are having meetings [and] the administration is having meetings. At a student level, students are beginning to speak out. We are all becoming more involved. There were at least 20 Riordan students who went to the vigil [on Feb. 18] and that shows that we are creating awareness and trying to make a stand on the issue.” However, it is not only at Riordan that teachers and students are taking a stand. Sacred Heart Cathedral has been at the forefront of several rallies that have gained the attention of many in the Bay Area. Also, a group dubbed “Teach Acceptance,” comprised of teachers, parents, and students who oppose the new language, have organized many rallies and gatherings. Most notably, they hosted a public forum at USF and then a procession and vigil from Mission Dolores to St. Mary’s Cathedral on March 30.
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