Students, supporters and alumni of Eastside Catholic School have delivered more than 21,000 petition signatures to Seattle Archbishop J. Peter Sartain in support of  former vice-principal Mark Zmuda, who was fired Dec. 19 when it was revealed he had married his gay partner last summer.

“Please listen to the students at Eastside Catholic and reinstate their vice principal,” the petition reads. “If Pope Francis says he won’t judge gays and lesbians, you shouldn’t be firing them.”

The same petition was delivered to the administration at Eastside Catholic School. It was written by a group called Faithful America and signed by people from all over the world.

Mary Helen Nuxoll Kopczynski, class of 1996 and the school’s first female student body president, now lives in New York, but is very involved.

“The alumni group is well over 300 strong,” she said. “It’s not going to get any less disruptive.”

The priest at St. Joseph Parish in Seattle, John Whitney, has deemed the students at Eastside Catholic “the orange and blue apostles,” after the school’s colors.

Local alumni organizer, Corey Sinser, spoke at the demonstration in front of the Sartain’s office, pleading for him to start a dialogue with them.

“The year is 2014 – it’s time to stop firing teachers for being gay,” Sinser said. “To echo our pope, the church is for all.”

The school’s alumni has set up a Facebook page called, “Sister Mary, please resign,” referring to Sister Mary Tracy, the school’s president and CEO. The issue has been discussed on CNN’s Anderson Cooper show. Kopczynski said they’ve contacted the Stephen Colbert show.

“The truth is the only card they (administration) have is pretending it’s out of their hands, but everyone knows it wasn’t,” Kopczynski said.

She is referring to the school’s administration blaming it on the archdiocese. However, on the archdiocese’s website, under Catholic Schools, it specifically states of Eastside Catholic, “this school is a Catholic institution that is separately incorporated and is not part of the Corporation of the Catholic Archbishop of Seattle. It is not sponsored, directed, administered or managed by the Archbishop of Seattle or his delegates.”

Kopczynski said they want Sister Mary to resign. She is puzzled since Stephanie Merrow, part-time theater director at the school, announced she was gay and planning to marry her partner of five years next summer. Merrow was given a new contract, which Merrow said is a “consulting agreement,” plus they gave her a raise.

Kopczynski said she knows for certain that two teachers who were at EC for decades were Jewish.

“How are they supposed to follow Catholic doctrine?,” she queried, since the school fired Zmuda for not following Catholic doctrine.

“We alumni are in our 40s now and we’re not afraid to spend some capital,” she said.

The alumni association has set up four committees to deal with the situation: one which wants to change church doctrine, one which addresses concerns of the LGBT community, a wrongful termination committee and a poor leadership committee that is  concerned about bad decisions.

“They fired 17 teachers in 2010 for wanting a grievance policy, and they were all given $7,000 to stay quiet,” Kopczynski said. “We are the crusaders, we are the product of this school and we don’t agree. I’m having a tough time understanding these weird unilateral, dark decisions.”

In addition, Kopczynski said the alumni want to see the school’s board include two parents, two teachers and two alumni, not just “rich people.”

She said the school’s attorney, Michael Patterson, donated $90,000 to the school and he is also the attorney for the archdiocese, which would seem to be a conflict of interest.

At Wednesday’s demonstration, Kirby Brown, who attends St. Mary’s Parish in Seattle, said he was at the event to support Zmuda, but more so the students.

“It’s more than a spark, they started a firestorm,” Brown said.

Jason Pustek came all the way from Gig Harbor.

“If Jesus were here today, he wouldn’t be in Sartain’s office, he’d be out here with us,” Pustek said.

An even larger event is scheduled for Jan. 31, which is part of National Catholic Schools Week. An event in a neutral location, yet to be determined, will include a celebrity panel and include several Catholic and non-Catholic schools.

“If she’d (Tracy) admit she  made a mistake and brought him (Zmuda) back, we’d let it go,” Kopczynski said.

Eastside Catholic alumni Corey Sinser holds the petition presented to the Archbishop of Seattle.