Hide the Crucifix or Lose Your Job

In January, Marisol Arroyo-Castro, a public school teacher in New Britain, Connecticut, with over three decades of experience, was suspended without paybecause she refused to remove a small crucifix from the wall next to her desk. The crucifix had been displayed for ten years without incident before the school principal demanded she hide her “idol” in her desk. This was part of a “compromise” struck by Arroyo-Castro’s union representative. She complied, at first, but put it back on the wall after feeling spiritually convicted. Consequently, she was put on administrative leave and now faces possible termination.

Arroyo-Castro’s crucifix was singled out for this treatment, but not her colleagues’ personal decorations, some of which are also clearly religious. According to the Daily Mail, school officials claim “they had also received complaints from students and parents that [Arroyo-Castro] incorporated her Catholic beliefs into her lessons.” Allegedly, she “called her students ‘sinners’ and told them ‘they need Jesus’” and “frequently used phrases like ‘Poppa God,’ while frequently weaving in ‘themes and stories from her religion into classroom instruction.’”

While the school administration claims it received complaints from students and staff regarding Arroyo-Castro’s instruction “relatively simultaneously” to complaints about the crucifix, it only raised these concerns after she challenged her suspension. More likely, the administration began investigating her instruction because their disciplinary action exposed them to serious financial liability.

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