In light of recent events in our country, and the unjust killing of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor, Sacred Heart Academy’s silence on the matter is deafening. Rather than using social media accounts to speak out about the grave injustices happening to our Black and Brown brothers and sisters, Sacred Heart is preoccupied with advertising for the annual auction, Hands Up for Heart.

Black and Brown alumnae have been failed by an institution that was supposed to support and educate them. Sacred Heart, a school that is supposedly rooted in Christ’s love, has an OBLIGATION to do better.  

This petition is to let the administration know that NO MONEY will be donated to the Academy by petitioners until the following occur:  

1. There is a hiring of black administrators or faculty members. SHA students, the vast majority of whom are white, need to hear from and learn from Black voices. Black students deserve to have excelsior men and women who look like them to look up to.

2. There is an updated curriculum to include a sociology class about the history of race in our country. The class must discuss central concepts sociologists use to analyze racial matters and teach that "racism" is not mere "prejudice," "ignorance," or “intolerance,” but a comprehensive historical system of racial domination organized around the logic of white supremacy. There must be discussions of "whiteness" in the United States—how whiteness emerged as a social category, how it dominated the racial structure of the US since the 17th century, how wealth has been distributed along racial lines, radicalization of Asians and Latinos, and color blind racism.

3. A scholarship fund is established that gives $8,000 per year per student for 5 BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) in an effort to diversify the future classes at SHA.  

4. You promise to hold students accountable for their actions. All racism, including racial slurs and micro-aggressions, should not under any circumstances, be tolerated.

Each year, alumni receive in the mail the Heart Magazine. There are pictures scattered about to portray a false sense of diversity. Without fail, there is always a donation ask included in the magazine. We as alumni & family and friends of alumni, promise to ignore these donation envelopes until we see real CHANGE. Our Black and Brown brothers and sisters, within the Academy and in the wider community, must be supported. Black lives matter. After all, What Would Jesus Do?