The quality of Mercy is pretty strained
I first walked the halls of Merion Mercy Academy in 1970, when my family moved from Logan to Havertown, and my parents were looking for a Catholic girls school where I would get the kind of education generations of Catholic girls were privileged to receive. They focused on Merion, because one of my father’s best friends, Jack McDougall, had sent his two girls there and they were full of praise for the place. And that is how I ended up spending the next nine years of my life on the beautiful, bucolic campus in Lower Merion.
I have nothing but wonderful memories of my time at my alma mater. In fact, Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with some classmates who I now realize I was blessed to have around me in the 1970s, but didn’t understand just how blessed as I was moving through the grades. Beth, Regina, Judy, Andrea, Donna, Ellen, Dolores, Linda, Gerri, Barrie, Kathleen, Nell, Heidi, MK, and so many others who I’m omitting but who are a part of the fabric of my youth.
That’s why something I learned this weekend has upset me to the point that I actually reached out to the head of school, a dean of students and another administrator to find out if what is rumored to have happened actually did. No one has answered my emails, and since the woman who told me the story is incredibly trustworthy, I have to believe that this troubling event occurred.
This week, after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, students in the conservative students club at Merion put up a photo of Kirk as an “in memoriam.” That makes absolute sense to me. He was born and baptized Catholic, married a Catholic, was rumored to be coming back to the Catholic church and was indisputably conservative. While I don’t ever remember any sort of political clubs at Merion when I was there during the Jurassic period, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that one is allowed to flourish.
Although apparently, it is a rather anemic sort of “flourishing.” When someone at the school saw the photo of the young husband and father who had been murdered in cold blood, she became offended. We don’t exactly know who “she” was, but I’m told that the poster board with his photo was in the Dean’s Office. And it appears that this poster was the only one that was targeted for censorship.
In addition to the photo, there was this quote of Kirk’s “If you believe in something, you need to have the courage to fight for those ideas. Not run away from them, or silence them.”
One of the girls involved in creating the tribute was pulled out of a Spanish test that she was taking, and forced to remove it. As a former Spanish teacher, that really annoys me. How dare they allow some distorted sense of propriety interfere with a student’s academics?
No reason has been given for the removal of the picture, at least not from the people I emailed. And while I cannot confirm this, one of the parents who called to complain was hung up on. I am repeating what was told to me in confidence by a reliable source who has, so to speak, saddle shoes on the ground. Had any of the three people that I emailed shown some interest in providing clarification, I would have welcomed that. But they didn’t, and I waited hours, and since nothing is forthcoming I am going with my friend’s account. By the way, this account has been confirmed by several students with knowledge of the incident.
There are a lot of things that Merion has done that I don’t agree with. They have posted rainbow flags, and discussed BLM, and done all of the equity and DEI things that would have been unheard of during my years there, things that they have somehow shoved under the banner of “Catholic Charity.”
Whatever, it’s a new era and I am just a lumbering brachiosaurus in a plaid skirt and blazer. But at the very least, if in fact the school does believe in that “Catholic Charity,” they should never interfered in students expressing compassion and respect for a young leader who shared their ideals.
On another note, I certainly hope that the kids at the school aren’t interested in becoming lawyers, because they got a nice lesson in how not to support free speech in an academic environment. True, this is not a governmental entity and there are limitations on what a student can say in the school environment. But it is hard to figure out why a respectful expression of grief for a fallen conservative icon would turn adults into thought Gestapo.
One good thing to come out of this is that when news got out about the heavy-handed tactics of Merion’s administration, more kids signed up for the conservative club. Catholic School “Carma.”
I still love Merion. I sometimes sing the school anthem in the shower, getting emotional with the “Three Cheers for the Blue and the Gold!” as I wave my sponge. But this is an extremely troubling commentary about how very, very different a school it is from the one I fell in love with in 1970.
Christine Flowers is an attorney and lifelong Philadelphian. Follow her on Twitter/X at @flowerlady61
Sounds like the administration is an overbearing bunch of cowards. You should reconsider any financial support that you give them.
Fedup:
It has been explained to me that, for the last few decades at least, there has been so much left-wing money for schools from NGOs and from the government itself, that losing conservative alumni donations is inconsequential.
That would explain a lot. We’ll see how losing USAID funding starts to affect them.
If you want to get a non-profit’s attention, especially a school, go after their tax-exempt status. Then they can express their
butts off, just without taxpayer tax subsides. Many years ago, at a conference at Syracuse University I saw this scribbled on a wall “Support mental health or I’ll kill you”. Seems the administration at Merion took this to heart.
Jesus never hung out with prostitutes. Jesus never hung out with tax collectors. Jesus never glanced at the lepers suffering alone from an illness that ostracized them from their community. Jesus never taught us to be kind to one another. No, he taught us to judge and fight with our fists instead of our words. Don’t love your neighbor as yourself. Fight your neighbor as an enemy. Hate them for not fitting the standards. Don’t hold discussions about WHY they are right or wrong. Don’t try to get a more rounded opinion on the world. Jesus taught us to destroy the things we do not understand or support. Jesus taught us that compassion is the real enemy. Jesus taught us that it is sinful help those in trouble. Remember, the way someone is born is their fault. The way others treat them is their fault. The way they cry and hurt is their fault. Jesus would never love a child that is different. Jesus would never try to stop others from being hurt or scared or upset. Jesus was a law abiding citizen— he never worked on the Sabbath.
You seem very confused, and very tired.
If an employee of the school pulled the poster down, they should be fired. Haven’t we had enough of administrators acting this way? Charlie was killed because he was able to overcome this very type of prejudice. Charlie Kirk’s ideas and speech are in keeping with Catholic teachings. I have to wonder if the administration is.
Thank you for sharing this story. I hope it circulates widely for more awareness. Conservative youth have just as much a right to express their views and opinions as any other group. It’s very disturbing that the adults they should be able to trust in schools are trying to silence and shame them for thinking freely.
Charlie Kirk wasn’t baptized catholic he was evangelical protestant his wife was Catholic. so just saying your opinions are allowed but please try to verify facts