Breaking News: St. Anns Families Start Petition Against Student Admission Denial

A petition was released by parents and members of the Prairie Village community March 1 asking St. Anns Catholic School to reconsider their decision to deny a same-sex couple from enrolling their child into kindergarten.

The petition, requesting that they “reconsider the policy to deny admission to students on the basis of his or her parent’s same sex union” has received over a thousand signatures and was sent to the school superintendent, Kathy O’Hara, as well as the Kansas City Archbishop, Joseph Naumann.

Naumann sent out a statement to families of St. Anns, stating that “same sex unions are not in conformance with the Church’s teachings on sacramental marriage” and “the parents cannot model behaviors and attitudes consistent with the Church’s teachings.”

Many families of St. Anns are angered, and some parents are considering pulling their students out of the school according to St. Anns alumni, freshman Elise Madden.

Petition signers have argued that the school allows students who don’t live by Catholic rules, have parents who are divorced or have had vasectomies, are born through vitro fertilization or accepts not Catholic.

The school is within their legal rights, but has not addressed the matter with St. Anns students according to Madden.

“Both of [my sisters] said that the school hasn’t even addressed it with them, they just heard it through the news and people,” Madden said. “It’s just really wrong that the school is refusing a kids education because of his parents.”

The school was asked to comment and has not yet responded.