INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - The guidance counselor suspended from Roncalli High School after administrators discovered her same-sex marriage will appear on "The Ellen Show" this week.
Shelly Fitzgerald has worked at Roncalli for 15 years. She was outed to the school's administration in August and has been on administrative leave ever since.
"I think their hand was forced and I'm sorry that they're in this position," Fitzgerald told us in her first sit-down interview after the news broke. "They said that either I could resign, or that I could dissolve my marriage."
Support has poured in for Fitzgerald from students and the community alike, while detractors have pointed to the employment contract she signed forbidding employees from entering into a same-sex union.
Fitzgerald and her wife have been together for 22 years, though they just married in 2014. They also have a 12-year-old daughter, who they adopted as an infant.
Her interview with Ellen will air Friday, Sept. 7. "The Ellen Show" airs weekdays at 3 p.m. on WTHR Channel 13.
A Care2 petition in support of Shelly Fitzgerald has almost reached its goal of 60,000 signatures.