Parents sue school for putting woke culture ahead of Catholic teaching

Parents who pledged $1.35 million to their daughters’ Catholic school say the school has put the woke culture ahead of Catholic education.

Anthony and Barbara Scarpo are suing the school in an effort to have their pledge rescinded.

The money was to be used for the school’s master plan and to provide scholarships for disadvantaged students.

The Scarpos claim they were betrayed by the school “embracing the new, politically correct, divisive and ‘woke’ culture where gender identity, human sexuality, and pregnancy termination among other ‘hot-button issues,’ took center stage.”

The school “insidiously indoctrinated its students, requiring that they ‘check their white privilege’ and feel sufficiently guilty merely because of their skin color,” the Scarpo’s 45-page lawsuit says.

The Scarpo’s paid $23,000 per year for a Catholic education they felt strongly about, Adam Levine, the Scarpo’s attorney says.

They don’t really object to teaching the kids about almost anything but what they object to is the teaching of kids in the absence of what the church says or in the absence of the church’s positions.

“It’s really not about the Scarpo’s being opposed to teaching kids about gender or race or sexuality or who you chose to marry. It’s more about the fact that all of this is done in a vacuum completely separate from anything the church says.”

Catholicism is “billed as an unfortunate past deserving of its students’ guilt for not having been ‘woke’ sooner,”. The lawsuit claims this amounts to fraud and breach of contract.

“The continued indoctrination of your twisted version of social and racial justice, equity, inclusion, sexuality and today’s politically correct narrative has permeated like a stench through the halls of the Academy and been allowed to seep into the minds of our children, causing stress, anger, guilt and confusion,” Scarpo wrote to the school.

“Clearly a very distorted view of the Bible, the true mission of Sister Marie Rose and our Catholic faith according to the Diocese and in complete violation of what we as parents wanted, expected and paid for.

“You were always eager to solicit our hard-earned money and take what you could but held firm as you dragged dozens if not hundreds of conservative families and teachers through your reimagined, highly progressive world, even as parents and students asked you … pleaded with you to stop, slow down… consider them and their families as well as their long-standing traditional history with the school.”

The couple’s generosity and financial help to the school is significant. By 2018, they had paid $240,000 toward the pledge and raised more than $9 million for the school. They chaired the fundraising campaign; the school’s auditorium was renamed the “Scarpo Family Theatre.” They are asking for their name to be removed from the theatre and anything else to do with the school.

Furthermore, the Scarpo’s attempts to meet with school administrators about the woke culture have been rebuffed.

The academy says the Scarpo’s claims are “false and unsubstantiated” and a “publicity stunt”.

“We will continue to pray for all parties involved, and, if necessary, we are prepared to defend ourselves in court,” a school spokesperson says.

Their lawsuit is asking for the money they donated to be returned and the tuition fees they paid for their daughters to be donated to Catholic charities of their choice, Levine says.

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