Will Muller, a rising sixth grader at St. John LaLande Catholic School in Blue Springs, has been kicked out — “disenrolled” after much prayer, according to a July 19 letter from the principal, Susan Martin.
This is not because Will, who is 11, was struggling academically or did anything wrong. On the contrary, “he’s an ‘A’ student,” said the mother of a classmate, and liked by everybody. “My son would say he’s the only one who never talks or gets in any trouble.”
According to the letter, he’s being expelled because his parents, Paul and Hollee Muller, have “stated both verbally and in writing you do not agree with nor do you support the teachings of the Catholic Church. After prayerful consideration and discussion among our school administration it is obvious we no longer have a partnership with you, since the values of your family are not in alignment with those of our school. Therefore, the school administration has made the decision to disenroll your child from our school.”
As it happens, the Mullers are mainstays of the parish and the school, where they are volunteer basketball and track coaches, run a Tuesday night “open gym” for the kids, and “volunteer to do a lot of things other parents won’t,” said that same St. John mother, who like all four other parents I spoke to, did not want her name used out of fear that she, too, might be shown the door and left scrambling to find a new school three weeks before classes begin. “Their whole life was that church. It’s just wrong, and it’s going to hurt a lot of the kids.”
Hollee’s “given so much of her time, I’m shocked they would do this,” said a second St. John mom.
Paul Muller attended St. John himself, as did his 15 siblings. So this decision is devastating for their family, and for the wider community, too.
Exactly what Catholic values do the Mullers not share?
Hollee was vice president of the school’s advisory board, and she objected to changes at the school since Father Sean McCaffery became pastor of the parish a year ago.
New priest yanked library books, banned Duolingo app
“The priest came rolling in hot,” Hollee said, “yanking books” from the school library, including one about a polar bear with two mommies and all of Rick Riordan’s work, some of which features characters who are gay, bisexual, lesbian and trans.
As Hollie herself sums up her supposed heresy, “I don’t think being blatantly homophobic is a teaching of the Catholic Church.”
The Duolingo language app was taken away, according to parents, because it translates the words “gay” and “lesbian.” CNN 10, a news source for “explanation seekers on the go or in the classroom,” was pulled, Hollee said, “because the priest said we don’t need the media teaching our kids.”
A third mom I spoke to said she was told that CNN 10 was out “because its parent company is too liberal.” She and others said Father McCaffery does not respond to concerns, “or even look at us” who ask questions. “I don’t consider myself liberal, but banning books, and Duolingo? Don’t punish the child for the parent. And honestly, Hollee did nothing wrong.”
Hollee was also among those who spoke up after a teacher told her older son’s seventh grade homeroom that girls who wear leggings might leave the impression that they are “whores.”
School officials called the uproar that followed that classroom discussion “a big misunderstanding,” the not-liberal mom said, “but a lot of parents were upset” by what their kids told them about the teacher’s suggestion that it was up to girls to help boys get to heaven by protecting them from lustful thoughts.
In one of a bunch of emails to and from school administration that Hollee shared with me, after the “whore” incident, she suggested to the school principal that “perhaps we need to start working on educating our boys how to respect others and appropriate treatment of…
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