Dear Parents:

Peace and blessings,

Brianna K. Latko
Principal

Dear Parents,

I hope that this Thanksgiving week finds you happy and healthy and anticipating time with family and other loved ones.  As I count my blessings this year, I am grateful to be part of this community that is so committed to serving and caring for others.

Throughout this holiday season, our students and parents, as well as our faculty and staff, will be participating in many activities to care well for others.  Each year we collect everything from food to coats to gifts for families in need of those things to help make their holidays a little brighter. 

I am impressed not just by the amazing direct service our community does but also by the ways that we advocate for others.  Last summer, the Jesuit Refugee Service asked Jesuit Drama, led by Ed Trafton and his wonderful staff, to author and produce a play about the refugee experience.  The group spent the fall doing just that and created the documentary theater piece, Imago Dei.  The play was an incredibly poignant show about the harsh realities faced by many refugees; it was also a piece about hope.  I was moved by the experience of it, and I hope that many of you also had the opportunity to see this incredible work.

In preparing to write this letter to you, I looked back at my letter from this time last year.  It seems that much of what I put in that letter is pertinent to the message I would like to send home today, so rather than “re-inventing the wheel,” I am going to go ahead and directly quote much of last year’s letter here (italicized below).

I need to communicate with you all about a very serious topic this month and ask for your help moving forward.

Jesuit High School is a great community to be a part of for many reasons.  I feel privileged to be the principal of this wonderful place.  In a small community like ours, however, rumors can sometimes be a problem, and it has come to my attention that there are many rumors swirling around in regard to some recent disciplinary situations.  Please know that when difficult situations arise, the administration works together to look at each student individually—including his personal history at Jesuit and his current actions—to determine the consequences he will face if he has made poor choices. 

I need to have some incredibly difficult conversations with students and families on occasion, and I am committed to being honest and doing what is best for each of our young men on this campus.  Whenever a situation involves a student being asked to leave Jesuit, I consult with other administrators, counselors, and when appropriate, faculty members.  I also spend time in prayer and reflection over decisions of this nature.  Asking an individual to leave the Jesuit High School community is the most difficult thing I have to do.  If I genuinely believe it will be best for that individual in the long run and/or will be best for our school community, I must make that hard decision. 

Recent events have brought to light (again) the fact that we have some students who are engaging in illegal behaviors during their free time.  Drinking and smoking marijuana have become commonplace for some of our students.  Because of peer pressure to “fit in,” even good students and good young men can make poor choices.  I also urge you to be attentive to your son’s internet and phone texting activities.  Over the last few years, particularly this year, we are seeing more and more difficult situations arise from internet use and texting.  Some of these situations even require that we contact law enforcement.

I often talk about the partnership between school and home.  As your partner, I am asking you to please review the Student-Parent Handbook and discuss with your sons the serious consequences that can result from these kinds of negative choices. I ask that you remind them of the message I shared with them at our beginning-of-the-year orientations:  be heroic.  Encouraging your sons to think about making positive choices before they are faced with different kinds of situations will help them to be better equipped to deal with actual situations that are tricky when and if they do arise.

The young men we serve at Jesuit are bright and interested.  They look to their teachers, coaches, and administrators as role models.  They look to you, their parents, and the parents of their friends as role models.  All of us are charged with an enormous responsibility in helping to form the character of these young men.  Our partnership in this regard is essential.  Thank you for continuing to support the school as we move forward. 

I know the message of this letter is serious, but our partnership requires us to be honest with each other, and we are serious in our commitment to be co-educators with our Jesuit families.  I am open to receiving any reflections on this topic that you may have.

Sincerely,

Brianna K. Latko
Principal