Catholic school supporting student's choice to become transgender

[Annie]

Personally, I am unsure of the best path for the school with the TG child; however, the cohabitating girl is acting against very clear Catholic teaching, and schools are limited in what they can do.

Especially in a Catholic school (unlike a public school), the school and the parents must work together. If the school is sending one message and the parents another, the school is secondary secondary and the parent and must concede the parents’ authority.

The school is not discarding the child; the child and her mother are discarding what the school offers. People simply cannot have their cake and eat it too.

 

[tafan2]

They never said to accept the transgender student as a boy or to believe gender is malleable, they only said to call the student what he wants to be called - that sounds like basic dignity to me, which all humans are entitled to.

I don’t get this. Regardless of gender, do I have a right to be called what I am not? I want you to call me and treat me as a neuro-surgeon?

If I have convinced myself I am a neurosurgeon, is it charitable to me to go along with my fantasy?

 

[Ammi]

BornInMarch:

They never said to accept the transgender student as a boy or to believe gender is malleable, they only said to call the student what he wants to be called - that sounds like basic dignity to me, which all humans are entitled to.

I don’t get this. Regardless of gender, do I have a right to be called what I am not? I want you to call me and treat me as a neuro-surgeon?

Its severe, therapeutic role playing (at best) and explicit condoning/encouraging dysfunctional and disordered behavior (at worst). Either way the school and other children should not be forced to be active participants in such treatment.

 

[tafan2]

The eighth commandment is no longer important?

 

[EndTimes]

Its severe role playing (at best) and explicit condoning/encouraging dysfunctional and disordered behavior (at worst). Either way the school and other children should not be forced to be active participants in such treatment.

Yep … It’s part of the FGBTQ Homosexual Agenda
which has infiltrated the Church via Satan
and of which according to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
is the very Cause for the decades of Clergy-Sexual Abuses.

Any boy who thinks he’s a female, has a mental problem…

T’s are not any sort of sub-group of Humans

Male and Female ARE the genders…

Active Homosexual Sex? Is a very grave sin.

Rightly labelled, Sodomic Filth -
in connection with any Clergy who gleefully support - and oft-involve in - said Abomination

 

[QwertyGirl]

The school is not discarding the child; the child and her mother are discarding what the school offers. People simply cannot have their cake and eat it too.

Were all of the kids whose parents are in invalid marriages expelled? What about those who cheat on their taxes.

I think the kids are being taught some really bad stuff.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Were all of the kids whose parents are in invalid marriages expelled? What about those who cheat on their taxes.

Why would they be?

As long as the kid isn’t at school rabble rousing about it, there would be no reason to deny a well behaved kid an education.

 

[QwertyGirl]

Oh so being well-behaved is now the deciding factor? I didn’t hear anything about the transgender student being ill-behaved.

When I was in school (Catholic, back in the 70’s), I was well aware of the kids whose parents were cheating on each other. And that was way before Facebook or other social media. Kids talk about what goes on in their homes.

 

[tafan2]

I do not think the child should be expelled. I just don’t think she should be aided and abetted in “transitioning” by the school. That is not showing her any love.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

I was replying to your statement about the actions of the parents and you know it.

 

[QwertyGirl]

Yes. Seems people here feel that people doing things considered sinful should be denied access to education in a Catholic school. I am asking where is the line drawn. How sinful is too sinful? I would really like to know. I am sure everyone has an opinion.

The best thing I learned from my many years of Catholic education is that we are all sinful and are supposed to love one another, not in spite of that fact, but because of it. We accepted everyone.

 

[Annie]

First of all, there is a difference between a student doing something and the parents of the student doing something.

Secondly, there is a danger in allowing students of parents who are public sinners (as in invalid marriage vs tax cheat) to be in a Catholic school as such children are taught that their parents are sinning, and this creates tension in the child.

This actually happened in my family which is why I was baptized but not raised Catholic.

This danger is more widely recognized now than it was when divorce was more rare.

Going back to the girl expelled because of her actions and her mother’s decision to allow them, consider too that every year there are applicants for those seats at the school. The school 9s limited in the number of students it can accommodate. Why should an applicant from a family which practices the Faith be excluded because of a student whose family is not?

 

[Annie]

I am asking where is the line drawn. How sinful is too sinful?

Generally public grave sin is the determiner.

We accepted everyone.

A lot of Catholic schools have the mission of aiding in the upbringing of Catholic children. Others have a more evangelistic mission and accept many non-Catholic students.

The two types of schools are different.

And even tho you say your school accepted everyone, the school has physical limits which would preclude that, requiring accepting some and refusing others.

Another thing to consider is the time. We did as a Church (at least in the US) go through a time when many in the hierarchy expected great changes in moral teaching. Many women were told by their priests that the use of ABC was acceptable.

This was also the time of the greatest amount of later-revealed scandalous activity, as well as departure of many priests and nuns, and a steep decline in parish involvement.

So perhaps your school did indeed accept everyone, transgender students, cohabitating students, activist homosexual students, anti-Catholic Baptist students, etc, but somehow, I think as a student you may not have been privy to those decisions and how they were made.

 

[Sarcelle]

So how should a Catholic school handle it?

Should they expel the student for wanting to be of the opposite gender?

 

[QwertyGirl]

The message that sends is that marginal people “need not apply”.

What is overlooked is that we are all marginal. Every single one of us. Some of us are just more publicly marginal. Often, when this is the case, it is through no fault of the marginal person.

I get that if you are Catholic and sending your kids to Catholic school you may only want them exposed to your version of what “good” Catholics are. I guess I am just suggesting everyone considers what that means to them and if it is aligned with what they believe the mission of a Catholic should be all about.

Discomfort is sometimes the first indicator that some reflection might be valuable and a good idea.

 

[Annie]

The message that sends is that marginal people “need not apply”.

If a school has the mission of helping parents raise their children Catholic, then, yes, non-Catholics and no-practicing Catholics need not apply.

Just as at a Waldorf school, serious religious people, people who do not believe in homosexual marriage, etc., need not apply.

It’s kind of like a job interview: both the applicant and the company are looking to see if this is a situation which will further the mission of the company and of the person. For example, I would not apply to PP for a j ok b, and if by mistake I were to, they would be within their rights not to hire me.

A non-government-funded school is a private enterprise with an individual mission that differs from that of public schools, which are indeed required to accept everyone.

The school you run might well accept different students from the school I run, but that is normal and it doesn’t mean one or the other of us is wrong. It is a reflection of what we are trying to do.

This is simply part of real life, where there are limitations, definitions, and boundaries that must be drawn, because no one of us or group of us can do everything all the time.

 

[Annie]

What is overlooked is that we are all marginal. Every single one of us. Some of us are just more publicly marginal. Often, when this is the case, it is through no fault of the marginal person.

Yes, we are each marginal. However, the way in which we decide to deal with that marginality differs.

Some people deal with their marginality by trying to grow in virtue and holiness. Others by substance abuse.

Is there really no difference between those two paths? Would you suggest that a parish which decides not to hire the latter to work with minors is somehow wrong?

I guess I am just suggesting everyone considers what that means to them and if it is aligned with what they believe the mission of a Catholic should be all about.

For many parents, who are responsible for the upbringing of their own children, that is precisely what the mission of the school they send their children to should be about.

And that is totally reasonable. We are talking about children, not adults, but even in the adult world, lines must be drawn.

Discomfort is sometimes the first indicator that some reflection might be valuable and a good idea.

Yeah, that sounds cool, but is it what you would tell your teenage children if they felt uncomfortable about how the people they were with were driving? Doing drugs? Touching them?

 

[Ammi]

So how should a Catholic school handle it?

Should they expel the student for wanting to be of the opposite gender?

Not necessarily. The parents and school principal should discuss the disorder. The school must inform the parents that nobody should be expected to role play a different gender than the child.

If the parents are attempting to demand this, then the parents should be warned that they are attempting to impose their disorder on the school.

 

[tafan2]

All well and good. What does that have to do with the OP? A child goes to a Catholic school, the child and parents should expect to abide by Church teachings, especially during the school day. They should expect to abide by the school rules (eg uniform requirements for boys and girls). And they should not expect other children to be required to lie for them.

 

[Ammi]

Yes. The disorder may be complex. But the way to handle it in a Catholic school is actually quite simple.

Express that the child is welcome. But be firm that others do not have the disorder, so they should not be expected to act as though they also have the disorder (or see it as right and normal).