Diocese let children, parents down by decision
I wanted to clarify a few miscommunications given to you by priest Micah Kozoil when he had your editorial staff as a captive audience to discuss the closing of St. Mary Nativity School. First, his suggestion that St. Mary School parents need to be “re-educated” and that St. John’s will now be “our school” is offensive and an interesting choice of words.
I would debate that educating this group would be difficult after you snuck in the back door of the school last week and fired all of our teachers and closed us down like a factory take-over.
Second, you are as an extremity of the Greensburg Diocese, the patriarch of our parochial school; you should be our leader in faith and definitely teach by example. How can you promote faith-based learning after the way you treated your students.
A righteous man, a leader, a protector of all things good, would have eased these kids into change, prepared them for transition and cared for them as the staff you were so fortunate to have there all these years cared for them.
While you preach faith and the Diocese collects thousands on faith-based education tuition, what you have done in your hasty and cowardly firing of the teachers, giving no notice to parents, extending no heartfelt message to the students, and your continued lies, is you have created a group of young people, the current St. Mary students you have abandoned, who are skeptical of you, your diocese and your religion.
These kids of faith are now skeptical of your institution, question your motives, question God.
The entire disaster that you have created was entirely unnecessary. Change is a healthy part of life, and parents would be remiss to argue otherwise; but change is not what’s happening here with this school closing.
What is happening here is far more dark, far more sinister. To treat this small group of elementary school kids with no mental, emotional or physical regard is to traumatize them, and at the end of the year it is practically criminal.
If you want to run the church and school like a business, behave like professionals.
Where was the meeting to help the kids adjust? What about an assembly suggesting a visiting day at St. John’s? You sent a smokescreen suggesting we have a regional school…that is both laughable and transparent.
You and the diocese did nothing, but kick us out with no notice.
For your surprise abusive attack on our families, I call out for accountability for your horrific behavior and the poor judgement from the diocese.
The debt money has been offered, parents are stepping up and you are shutting us out. Do you want to ostracize more people from a religion that is hobbling on one leg already? Can the diocese afford to be financially chairbound? How much has been spent on fighting abuse allegations regionally? How much is the diocese going to spend to overhaul St. John’s? Why would you dump tons of money in a building that needs renovated instead of locating a regional school at St. Mary’s? The answer is simple, it is easier for the diocese to lease out our building. Lets call it like we see it.
You have a beautiful, innocent captive audience of children that are comforted in your halls and you are forcing them out. Who will force you out?
I urge all Catholics to halt donations to the Catholic church until the Diocese of Greensburg owns up to the students and families of St. Mary Nativity School in Uniontown. If the diocese only listens to the cash register, please speak their language and pass on the collection plate.
A heartfelt thank you from our family to Carol, Cathy and Mr. Sepic in the office, 30 plus years from Miss Prah, Mrs. Kushnar, the outstanding Amy Palya, who probably after all of her volunteer hours, worked for free and a cast of extraordinary educators who are going to be sorely missed.
Thank you for treating us like family. Out of respect for you the above mentioned and also an utter unwillingness to follow the diocese to another school after the harsh treatment we received, we all sat proud this week at the open house at the junior high.
Natalie Crouse is a resident of Uniontown.