On June 16, Catholic author and head of the theology department at Garces High School in Bakersfield appeared on the Patrick Coffin Show to tell his story. On the show Gordon revealed that his GoFundMe account was frozen, which had raised over $30,000 . But he has set up a fund – TimothyJGordon.com – and raised over $30,000 there.

Also revealed on the show was the fact that Charles LiMandri and Paul Jonna of the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund have joined Gordon’s struggle with  the Fresno diocese.

One of the points raised by Coffin and Gordon was that his case is one of nuanced viewpoint discrimination – where public bullying pushes a private entity to censor  a point of view.

The  June 8 story on LifeSiteNews.

A Catholic teacher was dismissed from his position at a California Catholic school after criticizing the Black Lives Matter organization on Twitter.

Timothy Gordon, popular podcaster and author of Rules for Retrogrades, had taught at Bakersfield’s Garces Memorial High School for seven years.

On June 3, Gordon tweeted, “BLM is a terrorist organization.” In a separate tweet, he expressed amusement at a tweet from NPR stating that public health authorities had signed a letter saying, “White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19.” Gordon also called for the government to quell the street violence raging across the United States in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

In response to Gordon’s tweets, a petition circulated among a group of people, some associated with Garces Memorial High School. The petition accuses Gordon of “spreading unacceptable messages of ignorance and hate on social media and in his classroom.” It alludes to Gordon’s tweets criticizing Black Lives Matter and claims he has disparaged “other forms of worship, including Islam” in his classroom. The petition accuses Gordon of “abusing his position to spread his toxic political message.”

“We do not believe that such a person should be granted a platform to teach Garces students,” the petition continued. “We demand action from the school administration.”

Before the day was over, Gordon had received documents from Mona Faulkner, superintendent of Catholic Schools for the diocese of Fresno, pertaining to his “non-renewal as a Garces teacher for the 2020–2021 school year.”

But Gordon says he had already signed his contract for the upcoming year. LifeSiteNews has seen an email from an administrator at Garces Memorial, dated May 1, 2020, reminding him to send in his contract page and signed “annual responsibility form.” Gordon was the chair of the school’s theology department at the time.

Gordon described Garces Memorial High, which charges parents over $11,000 a year in tuition, as having an “interesting climate” and being a “Catholic education-mill type school.”

“Before I got there, they were teaching modernism,” he told LifeSiteNews.

Gordon said there are many political conservatives at the school but that he had his “enemies” among liberal families and donors who resented his orthodox teaching. However, Gordon believes he was well liked by a majority of his students and did not recognize all of the names on the petition.

“I had taught less than half of them,” he said. “A lot of them were not even students at the school.”

Gordon alleged that some of the signatories had bullied students who wouldn’t sign and that one of the bullied students had her house egged.

Gordon recognized thirty or forty of the students he had taught who did sign the petition as “liberal dissenters.” He believes that some of the others have an animus against him because he’s a hard marker.

“I’m known at Garces as a non-grade inflator,” Gordon remarked.

He said that he has never discussed the Black Lives Matter organization with his students.

Gordon’s Rules for Retrogrades was released in March, and he says his book clearly states that there is no room for racism in the conservative movement, “which makes it hilarious that they’re painting me as a racist.” He also resents the label because his wife is Latina.

Gordon, a married father of six, is the sole breadwinner for his family. One of his daughters is recovering from a brain surgery she underwent on April 6. The former teacher said his firing was “particularly despicable” because the administration had known of the girl’s illness, and prayers for her had been said daily during the school’s lockdown Zoom classes….