On January 25th 2016 a well respected basketball coach, Dean of guidance, and all around asset to the Paramus Catholic Community was fired from the school after working there since 2005 and also graduating from PC in 2001. As a student she was an all star athlete and no one seemed to be concerned with her sexual orientation as she was winning titles and recognition for Paramus Catholic. She paid her dues worked hard and rose through the ranks of the school going from assistant basketball coach as a student and a guidance counselor later on to becoming head coach of that team and the Dean of guidance. She put in the work and loved the students and had pride in her school. These are her words: “I was proud to work there,” she said of Paramus Catholic. “Proud to be a part of such a diverse school community that exposed students to so much, and I also felt it was an honor to serve my alma mater.” So imagine her dismay when the school that taught her she can do anything or be anything, empowered her to use her talents to help students, while also teaching her under the Catholic faith to love and not judge others, went against the exact beliefs they preach to students everyday and fired her over who she chooses to love. I have seen anger and disappointment in parents and students alike from different classes that are absolutely stunned and really embarrassed to have ever graduated from there including myself. I have always seen those halls as a place where gays and straights, nerds and popular kids can feel safe in being different and that those differences are what make you unique and thought that Paramus Catholic was fostering this kind of uplifting environment. Instead they are fostering an environment of hate, confusion, disappointment, embarrassment, and anger. The school is using the excuse that she is not living her life in line with the Catholic faith while they have employees who are divorced or have kids out of wedlock and even teachers having sex with students. Kate even brought to the attention of the school an incident where 2 chaperones, who were employed by Paramus Catholic, in 2011 sexually abused three 17 year old girls on a trip to Europe and has been known to have interceded in and stopped numerous incidents of bullying happening right in those halls. How can you allow other people choosing to live against the teachings of the Catholic faith and chastise Kate Drumgoole and say its not discrimination? She seems like an asset like a person you want working for your school with good morals whose not afraid to stand up for what is right. A person who knows what it's like to be different and shows kids everyday that it's not only ok to be different but helps them to cope with the world they will face outside of the Paramus Catholic Highschool walls. Homosexuals exist outside those walls and many have existed inside those walls and to try and hide that or shelter students away from the knowledge of the world around them that they will experience is doing them a disservice and is utterly disrespectful to every person gay or straight who has roamed those halls. The students are suffering and are left sad and hurt. We as former students, parents of former students, current students, parents of current students, friends, family, and supporters of the Paramus Catholic Community are outraged and demand that you rectify this and not only formally apologize to her but offer her job back. That is if she still wants to work for a place that treated her this way. It is not Christ like to treat anyone this way especially such an amazing person with a great message she lives her life by everyday and who has already given the school so much. Do the right thing and open your minds and hearts up to the whole world around you because that includes every single person in it.