S.F.'s Riordan high school students walk out during antiabortion presentation

Pretty awesome to read this as an alum who watched their teachers fight the dumbass archbishop over his views on gay teachers in our schools

Im proud of these kids - but confused by the parents. What did they think would happen sending their kids to a Catholic high school?

TL:DR

Catholic school brings in anti-abortion speaker and beforehand sent out an email that it's part of their Catholic education, as the SF Archbishop is also pressing on anti-abortion. Most students walk out, and parents aren't happy with how the school allowed it, with some students not Catholic and various other reasons.

Article

Hundreds of students at Archbishop Riordan High School staged a walkout Friday during an all-school assembly that featured a prominent antiabortion speaker.

About five minutes into the presentation, during which staff members patrolled the doors, students at the Catholic high school exited the theater and walked into the gym, since school rules don’t permit them to leave campus. A few dozen of the school’s more than 800 students remained in the theater for the entire presentation.

The speaker, Megan Almon, works with the Life Training Institute, a program that focuses on teaching people who are antiabortion to “persuasively defend their views in the marketplace of ideas,” and sends its speakers to Catholic and Christian schools everywhere, its website says. The Catholic Church’s official stance is also antiabortion.

The assembly comes on the heels of women’s marches across the nation, including one in San Francisco, in support of reproductive rights as conservative states like Texas attempt to restrict abortion rights — timing that was frustrating to Riordan parents and students.

Almon’s speech also follows San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone intensifying his public campaign to convince House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a fellow Catholic, to renounce her support of abortion rights. Cordileone, who oversees the diocese’s Catholic schools, including Riordan, is launching $50,000 digital ad in which he asks viewers to pray and fast as a sign of support, calling the effort the Rose and Rosary for Nancy Campaign.

Some Riordan students were particularly upset that Almon was invited to speak during the school’s first year as a co-ed institution — Riordan had previous been an all-boys school.

Claire Ibalio, a senior and one of the students who walked out, said she felt like inviting Almon negated the opinions of pro-choice students like her.

“It’s just so frustrating,” said Claire, who transferred to Riordan when Mercy High School, an all-girls school, closed last year. “It’s been so hard to go from an environment of female empowerment to someone telling me what I can and can’t do with my body.”

Ashley Coleman, also a senior who transferred from Mercy, also describes herself as pro-choice, said she was as compelled to walk out when Almon began comparing the number of abortions in the U.S. to deaths in the Holocaust — just a few minutes into the presentation.

Not every student felt that way. One student who stayed for the presentation, but asked not to have her name published, said she was happy to hear a perspective that she does often get in her social circles.

During the lecture, Almon’s talking points ranged from how embryos should be considered people and are no less valuable than the students in the room to how the logic of abortion compares to infanticide.

Some parents, who learned of the assembly in an email the school sent Wednesday, were also disappointed in the choice to bring Almon to campus, feeling that she represents extreme views that shouldn’t be shared with impressionable teenagers and that more context is needed when discussing the debate over abortion.

“I am really disappointed with Riordan,” said Jon Bailey, whose daughter is a sophomore at the school and was part of the walkout. After researching the speaker — whose name was not included in the original email to parents — he said that he found her message, which focuses on arguing for the antiabortion stance, to be “horrible and frankly harmful.”

Bailey added that he was “incredibly proud” of his daughter for “standing up” along with the other students — of all genders — who joined her.

Some parents were also surprised by the move.

“For me, it was poor pedagogy, and it was poor decision making,” Judy Walgren, whose son goes to Riordan, said.

Both were especially angry given that the speaker came during the first year that girls were allowed campus.

The school’s administration, however, argued that the speaker was part of its Catholic education.

“The assembly was an opportunity to come together in order to learn more about the dignity of human life. We recognize that members of our school community, whether they are Catholic or not, have different viewpoints on this topic,” interim president Tim Reardon said in a statement. “We appreciate that those with different views shared those respectfully today. We offered an alternative safe venue for students.”

The school also seemed to anticipate some resistance to the speaker, writing in an email ahead of the assembly to parents:

“The administration is aware that not all Riordan students are Catholic. We understand that we live in a society in which people have strong, disparate opinions about all the categories ascribed to this theme… Our speaker will be here simply to explain the Catholic position, primarily with regard to abortion. We ask that all students listen respectfully to the speaker, who is nationally recognized for her work on this subject.”

Opinions on abortion range significantly among Catholics themselves. A 2019 Pew Research Center survey found that more than half of U.S. Catholics — 56% — said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 42% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. Still, the survey found, most Catholics “favor at least some restrictions.”

And the school’s argument — that the presentation was in line with Catholic teaching — didn’t sit well with students and parents alike — who said that politically, the issue is much larger than abortion.

Walgren said that if the assembly was really about “Catholic themes of the dignity of human life” and not politics, then “where are the speakers about the death penalty? Where are the speakers about how you should go out into the streets in the Tenderloin and wash the feet of the poor and destitute?”

I’d love to see a competent journalist look into the closure of Mercy SF — those girls really got the shaft when that school closed. It was a great, nurturing place, and S.F. and the Mercy Education System just let it disappear.

Walgren said that if the assembly was really about “Catholic themes of the dignity of human life” and not politics, then “where are the speakers about the death penalty? Where are the speakers about how you should go out into the streets in the Tenderloin and wash the feet of the poor and destitute?”

yes, this, x100.

Riordan's education is crap BTW. pick a better Catholic school

Just when I think this generation couldn’t possibly be any dumber they go and do something like this.. and totally redeem themselves! Seriously though very cool of these kids to stand up to something together