At the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, Shelly Fitzgerald was one of six guidance counselors at Roncalli High School. Being her alma mater and working there for 15 years, Shelly had such a deep passion for the school. Her passion and work sadly came to an end when she was placed on administrative leave after the Archdiocese discovered she was married to a woman. Her quick and unjust departure left hundreds of students without a counselor to lead them through finishing their college applications and planning their future after high school. Shelly’s Voice was officially started after this event to stand up against this type of discrimination and insure an incident like this never happens again.

Currently, Shelly is looking for new employement and her position has been taken over by another guidance counselor. It is part of our mission to make sure that someday, Shelly will be able to re-apply for her position and finally be considered a valid employee in the school. We plan on doing this by advocating for a change to the Church’s employee morality contract to allow the LGBTQ+ community the ability to be rightful employees of the Catholic Church.