Former Teacher Sues Catholic School for Inaction on Harrassment

A former English and theater instructor at an Illinois Catholic high school is suing his former employer over discrimination, stating that the school failed to take action against years of anti-gay harassment and mistreatment. 

Brett Klaus

Brett Klaus filed the lawsuit against Marquette Catholic High School, Alton, on January 7 in both federal court in the Southern District of Illinois and Madison County Circuit Court.

Klaus worked at the Alton, Illinois school from 2019 to 2024, serving as a fine arts and humanities (English) instructor and the director of the theater program. In 2025, the school chose not to renew his teaching contract. 

In his lawsuit, Klaus asserts that he was fired because he is gay, although the lawsuits do not directly assert that the termination or contract non-renewal specifically violated any non-discrimination laws. Such counts would likely be dismissed, as the U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that religious private schools and organizations have First Amendment rights to hire and fire based on employers’ religious beliefs.

Instead, the focus of Klaus’s discrimination lawsuit is his assertion that the school failed to respond in any actionable way to his reports of anti-gay and anti-trans discrimination and “harassment and intimidation” from both students and staff for several years. These instances included two incidents of Klaus’s vehicle being vandalized, the use of the word gay as a slur by a colleague, anti-gay “pranks,” and being called “f—ing evil” by a “senior administrator” at the school. The lawsuit states:

“Throughout Klaus’s employment, Defendant’s employees and agents … made inappropriate and hostile comments—and engaged in inappropriate and humiliating conduct— connected to Klaus’s sexual orientation. According to Klaus, students in his music and theater programs were also victims of similar harassment, and the school similarly failed to take action.”

Additionally, Klaus claims that administrators and colleagues retaliated against him for reporting the discrimination by reducing his class load and responsibilities and making scheduling decisions “that undermined rehearsals and productions,” all of which resulted in “effectively undermining his professional role and authority.” 

Klaus acknowledged that his teaching contract with the school contained language prohibiting him and other teachers from “living a lifestyle inconsistent with Roman Catholic doctrine,” however this does not justify the discriminatory treatment Klaus and his students faced. 

The stated reason given for the school’s choice to not renew Klaus’s contract was tardiness, yet he disputes this claim.

While we still need to learn the school’s side of the story, if Klaus’ assertions of discrimination are even only partly true, it would be a terrible shame for a Catholic institution to have allowed such behavior.  It will be interesting to see how this case develops, since it is novel in that the former teacher is not claiming discrimination in hiring, but that no action was taken against claims of harassment. 

—Phoebe Carstens, New Ways Ministry, January 22, 2026