California State University-East Bay apologized to a mathematics instructor and restored her job Thursday after firing her on February 28 for refusing to sign a state-required loyalty oath, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Marianne Kearney-Brown, a graduate student who was teaching a remedial math course, is a Quaker and is committed to nonviolence. When told that she must sign a state oath of allegiance swearing to “support and defend” the U.S. and California Constitutions “against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” she tried inserting the word “nonviolently” in front of the word “support.” University officials forbade the change, and Ms. Kearney-Brown was fired.
At a grievance hearing on Thursday, she was given a new document that states: “Signing the oath does not carry with it any obligation or requirement that public employees bear arms or otherwise engage in violence.”
She has agreed to sign the revised oath and was reinstated, with back pay. —Don Troop
