Appropriate Reaction: Couple sues to get their money back after donating to pro-LGBT, ‘woke’ Catholic school By Raymond Wolfe for Life Site News
‘The continued indoctrination of your twisted version of social and racial justice, equity, inclusion, sexuality and today’s politically correct narrative has permeated like a stench through the halls of the Academy,’ Anthony Scarpo told the Academy of the Holy Names in Tampa.
A Florida couple is suing to get their money back after donating to a Catholic high school that has since gone “woke.”
Anthony and Barbara Scarpo pledged $1.35 million in 2017 to the Academy of the Holy Names, a high school in Tampa, Florida, that both of their daughters attended.
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The Scarpos donated to help disadvantaged students and advance the academy’s master plan and were chairs of the school’s fundraising campaign, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The school’s auditorium was renamed the “Scarpo Family Theatre” in their honor.
Last week, however, the couple filed a lawsuit to retract their pledge and have their donation returned. The 13-count complaint slams the Academy of the Holy Names.
“The Academy lost its way, distancing itself from mainstream Catholicism, and embracing the new, politically correct divisive and ‘woke’ culture where gender identity, human sexuality and pregnancy termination among other ‘hot-button issues’ took center stage,” the Scarpos’ lawsuit states.
The complaint, filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court on June 26, also asks the academy to give the family’s tuition money to Catholic charities of their choosing. Tuition and fees for high school students at the Academy of the Holy Names run as high as $22,450.
The Scarpos are also asking for the school to stop advertising itself as Catholic and that it no longer be accredited by the Florida Catholic Conference. Their lawsuit names the academy, former president Author Raimo, chairman of the board Ernie Garateix, and other members of the school’s leadership, as well as the Florida Catholic Conference, Newsweek said.
Gregory Hearing, a lawyer for the Academy of the Holy Names, called the action against the school “attention-seeking.”
“For a court to delve into whether the substance of matters taught by a Catholic school are consistent with a Catholic education would entangle the court in excessively religious matters, and thereby violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution,” he wrote in a letter to the Scarpos’ lawyer, Adam Levine. “That we should need to educate you on this is absurd.”
“This is not asking the courts to get involved in a religious issue, but this is a simple breach of contract. If you’re paying for a Catholic education, that’s what you should be getting,” Levine said, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
“It’s about the failure to deliver on a promise.”
