Present and past Marian students are among sign-carriers Sunday morning during two Masses at the Bloomfield Hills school. (Facebook photo by Amanda McVety)
About 125 Marian High graduates, students and others picketed the suburban school during Sunday Masses to protest the discharge of honors chemistry instructor Barbara Webb, Marlon Walker of the Free Press reports.
Webb, who was at the rally, held a sign with this meassage: "You may say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one." She married Kristem Lasecki two years ago and is pregnant with their first child, which she believes is why she was fired Aug. 19 after nine years at the Catholic school in Bloomfield Hills..
"Marian teaches about social justice in profound ways," says Amber Mazza Cummings, a 2001 graduate. (Facebook photo by Trina Scott)
“This has really blossomed into not being just about me,” Webb tells Sarah Hulett of Michigan Radio at the sidewalk event on Lahser Road, “but being about the current students and the past students, and them loving their school and wanting it be successful and change.”
Walker of the Freep quotes demonstrator Amber Mazza Cummings of Farmington Hills, a 2001 alumna:
"Marian teaches us about social justice in profound ways. This is a human rights issue. There's a mother and a child involved. (Standing up for them) is what we were taught to do."
A current student voices a similar sentiment in Hulett's coverage:
"We are actually a pro-life school, which is supporting all babies, supporting all forms of life,” said Marian senior Brigid Johnson. “And to fire a pregnant mother does not seem to be supporting life, or anyone's life."
During the morning rally, the parochial school firmly upheld a trespassing ban, a tweet from the Free Press journalist shows:
Just kicked off Marian High grounds by a Campus officer, informed by an asst principal that I was interviewing in the parking lot. Fun.
— Marlon A. Walker (@marlonawalker) September 7, 2014
-- Alan Stamm
