Sacred Heart Greenwich threatens to bar student over Planned Parenthood sticker

Sacred Heart Greenwich has told a student if she does not remove a Planned Parenthood sticker from her laptop, she cannot return to school next year. An online petition called I Stand With Kate Murray was started by Stephanie Viola, a close friend of the Murray family who graduated from Sacred Heart Greenwich in 2012. less Sacred Heart Greenwich has told a student if she does not remove a Planned Parenthood sticker from her laptop, she cannot return to school next year. An online petition called I Stand With Kate Murray was ... more Photo: Contributed Photo / Contributed Photo: Contributed Photo / Contributed Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Sacred Heart Greenwich threatens to bar student over Planned Parenthood sticker 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

GREENWICH — Sacred Heart Greenwich has told a student if she does not remove a Planned Parenthood sticker from her laptop, she cannot attend the school next year, according to the student’s parents.

Sophomore Kate Murray was told by the private Catholic school’s administrators Tuesday she has a choice: If she keeps the sticker, she can leave the school now or leave at the end of the academic year, her parents said. If she removes the sticker, she can continue to attend the school.

The sticker states “I stand with Planned Parenthood” and is one of many on Kate’s laptop.

Kate removed the sticker in order to go to school Wednesday and Thursday and continue discussing the matter with school officials, her parents Brian and Tracy Murray said in an interview Thursday. She has not made a final decision about whether she will finish the school year or her high school education at the school.

“It is a small sticker. It is not incendiary, it is not vulgar. It is not hurtful,” said Tracy Murray. “It is a statement of my daughter’s belief and she deserves the same respect for her beliefs that the administration and part of the faculty are demanding for theirs.”

Head of School Pamela Hayes said in a statement Thursday, “As a school, we cannot comment on matters related to an individual student. I can confirm that re-enrollment contracts have been sent out to all students currently enrolled in the school.”

Brian and Tracy Murray, both attorneys who live in Wilton, said they are angry at the school’s actions in this situation, but overall they love the school. The Catholic family’s older daughter Alex also attended Sacred Heart Greenwich and graduated in 2012. Kate is an excellent student with no prior discipline record, her parents said.

The Murrays said they felt their daughter was being unfairly targeted.

“It seemed an extreme reaction to a very small sticker, which puts forth a political point of view about a government funding matter and does not, at least the way I read the sticker, violate church doctrine or specifically advocate the murder of innocent babies,” said Brian Murray. “It is a really small sticker that does not seem to be able to cause that much damage to anybody.”

Students of all races and religions attend Sacred Heart Greenwich, but the school’s academics are “grounded in the beliefs and teachings of the Catholic Church,” Hayes said. The Roman Catholic Church has been decidedly against the practice of abortion for decades, although Pope Francis extended the ability to all priests to grant absolution for abortions in 2016. The church also prohibits artificial contraception. Planned Parenthood counts abortion and birth control among the many health services it offers women.

President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America Cecile Richards tweeted out her support to Kate Thursday.

“Kate, Planned Parenthood is so proud to count you as a supporter,” she wrote. “Keep fighting for what you believe in. #IstandwithKateMurray.”

As of 4 p.m. Thursday, more than 1,500 people signed an online petition called “I Stand With Kate Murray.” The petition states, “Unless Kate is allowed her freedom of speech, all of my future donations that would have been allocated to Sacred Heart Greenwich will now and forever be donated to Planned Parenthood.”

The petition was started by Stephanie Viola, a close friend of the Murray family who graduated from Sacred Heart Greenwich in 2012. In an email to school administration Tuesday night, she explained Planned Parenthood provides a wide variety of women’s health care, such as birth control, pregnancy care, cancer screenings and mental health counseling, in addition to providing abortions.

“The actions you are taking make you no better than the oppressive forces you are teaching women to question,” she wrote. “My CSH (Convent of the Sacred Heart) education is why I’m speaking out now in defense of a student’s right to support an institution that provides professional medical care to men and women alike. I support Kate Murray. I support Planned Parenthood. I support all-girls’ Catholic education.”

The school began using the name Sacred Heart Greenwich instead of Convent of the Sacred Heart in 2015.

Viola, the petition author, and Alex Murray plan on meeting with school officials Friday morning.

Many other Sacred Heart Greenwich alumnae have sent emails to the school supporting Kate.

“The reaction of the alumni is a perfect example of why we want to send our daughters there,” said Brian Murray, “because they are strong, independent, loyal women that fight for what they believe in, as my daughter was doing.”

The Class of 2012 sent a joint letter to the school stating: “We implore you to reconsider your expulsion of Kate Murray, and to take into account the type of precedent an action like this would set. As alumnae of Sacred Heart Greenwich, we stand with Kate and are proud of the strong young woman she has become.”

Maggie Gavin, a member of the Class of 2012 who identifies as pro-choice, sent her own letter to the school administration.

“Teaching girls that they should silence themselves and their opinions in today’s political environment is a toxic decision,” she wrote. “You should not be teaching these girls to keep quiet. You should be teaching them that their opinions, beliefs, thoughts, and experiences matter, and that they have a right to share these with others, to engage in conversation, and to encourage dialogue. Your reaction to this situation does nothing but show the young women you are responsible for educating that, if their belief is inconvenient to those in positions of power, they should change it.”

Hayes, the head of school, sent out a new mass email to alumni Thursday addressing the issue but not naming Murray.

“As an alumna of Sacred Heart Greenwich myself, I’m not surprised by the energy with which alumnae are engaging in this conversation around freedom of expression,” she wrote. “Open dialogue is alive and well on our campus and that’s why we discourage the displays of slogans and bumper stickers, which in an educational environment can have the unintended consequence of stifling open debate. We know there are better forums.”

She named as an example a junior ethics and morality course in which students debate their views on topics including abortion and the death penalty.

“Our formula of combining deeply held religious views and robust intellectual pursuit is working well, as evidenced by the energy with which our community is currently discussing this issue,” Hayes wrote.

Yet alumna Chloe Kimberlin, who graduated from the school in 2013, said the school has at times encouraged political expressions outside of class — if they matched the school’s stances.

“When I was a student at CSH in 2012, a student in the year below me sent an email to the entire school which contained an impassioned rant urging people to attend the March for Life and speaking disparagingly of women who receive abortions. Worse yet, to reach the written content of the email, one had to scroll through brutal photos of aborted fetuses,” Kimberlin said. “When I opened the email in school, I was shocked and disturbed.”

Kimberlin said she expected that the student would get in trouble for the graphic email, but it was quickly followed by another message from a top administrator “applauding the student for her passion, informing her that the school supported her mission, and thanking her for sharing her thoughts.”

Sacred Heart Greenwich said it could not confirm or deny this incident, which was corroborated by other alumnae. But Hayes said she could not condone this incident as described.

The outpouring of support from alumnae made the Murrays more convinced that Sacred Heart is a great provider of girls education, they said.

Gubernatorial candidate Ned Lamont got wind of the controversy during a Democratic Town Committee appearance Tuesday night in Wilton. He said Tracy Murray, who was a field organizer for his 2006 U.S. Senate race, apologized for missing his remarks and said she was late because her daughter was potentially being kicked out of school. When she elaborated about the disciplinary action at the Catholic school, Lamont said he was astonished.

“I said, ‘My God, that’s outrageous. That’s my hometown,’” Lamont told Hearst Connecticut Media. “Look, I’ve got two daughters. If they got kicked out of school for being outspoken, they wouldn’t last one month.”

Lamont, who is running for governor for a second time, said he hopes the school comes to its senses.

“I hope it’s just administrative overzealousness and it’ll be corrected quickly because this shall not stand,” Lamont said. “Add my name to that petition.”

Planned Parenthood has ties to Greenwich through Prescott Bush, a former resident of the town and a longtime U.S. senator from the Nutmeg State. Bush was the agency’s first treasurer. His name even accompanied Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s atop the organization’s letterhead in a 1947 fundraising notice. Prescott Bush was a longtime moderator of the Greenwich Representative Town Meeting, father of President George H.W. Bush and grandfather of President George W. Bush.

Additional reporting contributed by Neil Vigdor.

emunson@greenwichtime.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson