Quaker fired for altering Calif. oath of allegiance form

A math professor has been fired from California State University East Bay after she added the word "nonviolently" in a state-mandated oath of allegiance.

Marianne Kearney-Brown, a Quaker, lost her job after only six weeks by modifying the state's Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution, which is required of all elected officials and public employees, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

"I honor the Constitution, and I support the Constitution," Kearney-Brown told the newspaper. "But I want it on record that I defend it nonviolently."

Kearney-Brown, as a veteran public school math teacher, had modified the oath in order to conform with her antiwar beliefs as a Quaker in past years without a problem.

The oath asked her to "swear (or affirm)" that she would "support and defend the U.S. and state Constitutions against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

In her revisions, she included "nonviolently" in front of the word "support," and crossed out "swear" and circled "affirm." Modifying oaths is open to different legal interpretations, but Cal State East Bay would not accept any additions or removals, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

School officials gave Kearney-Brown the option to sign the oath as it was and include a note expressing her views in her personnel file, but she declined.

"To me it just wasn't the same," Kearney-Brown told the newspaper. "I take the oath seriously, and if I'm going to sign it, I'm going to do it nonviolently."

— RNS