‘I’d Rather Be Persecuted Than Silent’: Rockhurst Fires Teacher for Standing With the Oppressed & Resisting Fascism
James Gillcrist, anti-racist advocate who was arrested during the 2020 uprisings, a high school theology and philosophy teacher, was fired from Rockhurst High School for speaking out against Trump’s racist & fascist agenda. His open letter is a fearless, incendiary, prophetic call to action. The post ‘I’d Rather Be Persecuted Than Silent’: Rockhurst Fires Teacher for Standing With the Oppressed & Resisting Fascism appeared first on The Kansas City Defender.
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“I pray I am a fool so as not to be exposed as a coward,” wrote James Gillcrist in an extraordinary open letter to the Rockhurst High School community.
A theology and philosophy teacher, veteran, anti-racist advocate and lifelong advocate for the oppressed, Gillcrist was terminated last week in what he calls a clear retaliation for speaking truth to power. More than a local scandal—his firing indicates a chilling sign of the times we are in, and of the crackdown on dissent sweeping the nation.
Gillcrist’s words carry weight forged in the crucible of war. Reflecting on his time in Iraq, he confessed, “Of all that I experienced as a Light Infantry Officer in the Sunni Triangle, the decision to lie, to take the easy way out… haunts me the most.”
As an officer, he once fought for weeks to include unvarnished truths in his reports—truths that his superiors repeatedly demanded be altered to present an illusion of what he and his fellow soldiers were actually doing. Exhausted and demoralized after weeks of resisting these alterations, he eventually gave up the fight and submitted reports he knew to be false. He finally stopped being reprimanded by his superiors.
“Persons living or working in Iraq—men, women, children, as well as American soldiers—died as a result. Of that, I have no doubt.”
This searing moral clarity shaped Gillcrist’s career as an educator, where he sought to prevent his students from making the same mistakes. “I was hired at Rockhurst to teach virtue and help form young men that are committed to social justice,” he wrote. But in 2024, the fight for truth took a devastating personal turn when Gillcrist challenged the rhetoric and policies of Donald Trump.
The Battle for Truth in the Classroom
Gillcrist’s outspokenness came to a head after he recently condemned the president-elect’s fascist threats of mass deportations and crackdowns on dissenters.
“I firmly and clearly believe [students] have a moral obligation to stand up, speak out, and risk their well-being, reputation, criminal record, and, God forbid, their life to defend those being targeted,” he said during an ethics class.
This was not hyperbole, he later clarified in his letter, but a direct application of Jesuit values, rooted in justice and the defense of the vulnerable.
Rockhurst administrators labeled these statements “problematic.” But Gillcrist refused to apologize. “When you vote for a candidate promising mass deportation, you become an accomplice in the violation of human rights,” he asserted. For this and other acts of defiance, including social media posts critical of capitalism and police violence, his contract was terminated—via email.
A History of Resistance
Gillcrist’s history of confrontation with power is long and storied. During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Kansas City, he was violently arrested by riot police. His crime? Exercising his First Amendment rights. “I said ‘fuck’ a lot,” he admitted unapologetically in his letter, refusing to downplay his anger in the face of systemic brutality.
Even in the classroom, his refusal to sanitize difficult truths set him apart. He openly challenged students who perpetuated misogyny, racism, and homophobia, and he was disciplined for discussing the scientific complexities of gender, as well as the systemic inequalities perpetuated by capitalism.
“I was written up when a parent complained of a social media post that was anti-capitalist and pro-socialist,” Gillcrist recalled. Yet, he remained steadfast: “I will not apologize for exposing the politics of hate.”
“First They Came…”
In one of the most striking moments of his open letter, Gillcrist updated Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous poem “First They Came” for our modern era. Addressing his students, he read:
“First they came for the immigrants,
And I did not speak out
Because I am not an immigrant.
Then they came for the drag queens,
And I did not speak out
Because I am not a drag queen.
…Then they came for me,
And there was no one left to speak out for me.”
Gillcrist’s message was clear: fascism creeps forward with the complicity of silence.
“Were I in Germany in the 1930s, how long would I have waited before speaking out? Were I convinced of the evil on the horizon, would I pause? Worry for my job? My livelihood?”
His letter challenges us to confront these questions not as hypotheticals but as urgent moral imperatives.
A Chilling Warning
The firing of James Gillcrist is more than an administrative decision—it is a microcosm of the creeping authoritarianism engulfing institutions across America. His letter accuses Rockhurst of betraying its Jesuit mission, citing the removal of books critical of U.S. policies and its failure to denounce hate speech on campus.
“If the administration refuses to champion social justice, the institution will die,” he wrote. “Rockhurst will be nothing more than an expensive prep school where lip service is paid to Ignatian values.”
His parting words to the community are both a warning and a rallying cry: “If and when [Trump] asks for ‘enemies from within,’ please mention me. I would rather be rounded up at the beginning of the persecution than silently survive.”
Gillcrist’s letter is not simply the manifesto of a fired professor—it is a prophetic document that demands we examine our own roles in a society sliding toward fascism. Will we speak out, as he has, or will we remain complicit?
For James Gillcrist, the answer is clear. And now, the question is ours to answer.
The post ‘I’d Rather Be Persecuted Than Silent’: Rockhurst Fires Teacher for Standing With the Oppressed & Resisting Fascism appeared first on The Kansas City Defender.
