BACK TO "$CHOOL"

And be these juggling fiends no more believed,/That palter with us in a double sense;/That keep the word of promise to our ear/And break it to our hope. Shakespeare

Have you ever noticed how a big corporation, when it gets into trouble for bad behavior, almost immediately launches a massive public-relations campaign where it claims to exemplify the very principles it so lawlessly violated? In sputtering exasperation, you ask yourself, "How in the world would anyone possessed of common decency and an intact memory fall for such a cynical ploy?"

Unfortunately, the majority of us swallow the deception, so the bad actors are soon back to their nasty, old tricks. A few people, however, those firmly grounded in morality, hold the corporation accountable by refusing to purchase its products or services. They're a distinct minority, without question, and for the most part their resistance has no real impact, unless they organize. Nevertheless, even if they don't band together, and notwithstanding their powerlessness to inflict the just punishment the corporation deserves, they're proud to have stood on their principles.

We're sure many trads would find common cause with this moral minority. They recognize a striking parallel to their own resistance to the modernist Vatican Establishment. Most likely, they'd say they, too, would boycott a hypocritical corporation that refused to admit to wrong-doing and chose to avoid coming clean by hiding  under P.R. spin.  Some of you reading this post may be of a similar disposition. If you are, then we ask you to read and react to the following:

In the August 20 $GG bulletin, an item captioned A TEACHER'S PRAYER began with these lines:

Lord Jesus, Supreme Educator of souls, I thank You for having called me to this wonderful task of education. Make me ever more worthy of the confidence shown me by parents, by entrusting to me what is dearest to them in this world—their children! Teach me to treat these souls with the delicacy and infinite patience of Your Holy Spirit. Grant me Your light, the better to read hearts; Your perspicacity for discerning Your work and penetrating Your designs; Your mercy, for forgiving and healing; Your wisdom for counseling and directing the young lives entrusted to me. May my actions be Your actions, my hands, Your hands; my lips, Your lips; my life, Your life; so that nothing may touch these children that is not divine, and that I may not impede Your action in their souls. 

For those of you familiar with the lurid details of the 2009 $GG "$CHOOL" $CANDAL, the SW Ohio cult's own version of "the Sicilian Vespers," you're probably shaking your head in disgust at $GG's effrontery. In justice to the few remaining decent Gerties, PL is positive they weren't deceived either. They must still painfully remember how children were treated in the many months preceding the 2009 uprising.

But since some of our readership may not be as aware of the horrific scandal as others, we'll briefly remind everyone of just a few of the reported incidents that led to the mass exodus of decency from the cult. The Readers promse it'll be an eye-opening experience to compare the petitioned virtues of the prayer to the shocking practice of the past. (If you'd like the full report published on December 3, 2009, at the height of the $GG "$chool" cri$i$, you'll want to click here.)

👉Less favored students were characterized as retards, spoiled brats, and other derogatory names, and in the case of girls, tarts and even sluts, sometimes in public.  The younger children with learning disabilities were referred to as "retards." 

👉On one occasion, a student's bag was emptied, and all the equipment the child's parents had provided for the beginning of the school year was thrown into the trash. 

👉A seventh grade student was forcibly prevented from leaving church during Mass to go the bathroom, resulting an emotionally traumatizing "accident."

👉A high-school girl received a uniform violation for having her hair in the wrong place, even after she had corrected her hairstyle and had it approved by one of the women teachers.

👉A seventh grader was publicly humiliated for allegedly not cleaning a thurible after Benediction.  The boy's father checked with the head MC, and was told the thurible was cleaned perfectly.

👉A teacher was forcibly prevented from escorting a sick first-grade student out of the chapel on the first day of school.

👉A seventh grade boy was punished corporally in the presence of witnesses, during which punishment the paddle broke.

Undeniably, it's been some eight long years since the outbreak of the $GG "$CHOOL" $CANDAL.  Therefore, it's entirely possible, even plausible, that there's been a change of heart, or at a minimum a change of policy and practice at the "$chool." With grace anyone can change for the better. But, knowing human beings as we do, and realizing the present-day tendency of scapegrace organizations to give lip service to reform rather than change fundamentally, we're naturally suspicious about the appearance of the prayer in the $GG bulletin right before the start of a new "$chool" year.

Li'l Daniel told us in the "Corner" that "school preparation meetings...for our teachers" were set to take place last week. No doubt printing the prayer in the bulletin was meant to suggest to parents that their children —"what is dearest to them in the world" — will be in good hands. Don't you think, though, that in light of what we've just reviewed, Gerties should make double sure that the teachers who invoke this prayer will be able to act in behalf of little ones?

For instance, if teachers receive the gifts prayed for, yet cannot exercise them, how can the teachers' "actions, ... hands, ...  lips, ... life" be those of the "Supreme Educator of souls"? How can they answer our Lord's sacred calling? Moreover, shouldn't both parents and the handful of principled Gerties insist on the $GG "pastor's" written assurance (1) that every staff member at the "$chool" model the behavior for which the prayer begs so that (2) that there will never be a repetition of the horrors that produced the 2009 catastrophe?

That's a no-brainer. Absolutely they should. When you consider all that led up to the 2009 $chool $candal, a flowery bulletin item, soon forgotten by all, is not enough.

Consequently, here's what we recommend: The cult is a small-ltime operation so you can make a difference if you get organized. Flood Dannie's inbox with e-mails demanding he adopt a written action plan to ensure that every staff member be worthy of parents' "confidence" and treat each child with "the delicacy and infinite patience" of the Holy Ghost.

The plan must include specific provisions to guarantee that staff will emulate our Lord's "mercy for forgiving and healing" and behave in such a way that "nothing may touch these children that is not divine." Insist the plan contain explicit provisions for remediation or punishment of any staff member whose behavior does not conform to the prayer's entreaties. Also, require the Wee One to spell out a grievance process for parents and teachers to lodge complaints about the treatment of children.

In other words, force the "$chool" to live up to the promises of the prayer, and if it doesn't ...

STARVE THE BEAST!