When I saw this story, I thought of you, Redleghunter, and hoped you would stop in to add your insight. :-)
As a cradle Catholic - who left for a long time but returned later to the Catholic Church - I’m really surprised by this story. I’ve never heard of a Catholic school dismissing a student after she had such a serious illness. It goes against everything the Catholic faith is about.
You mentioned in one of your above posts that homeschooling might not be the best option for children fighting cancer because they need friends around them. So, I did want to tell you about our local homeschool community: My own children always were homeschooled, and there’s a large, very supportive community of people out here in HomeSchool World. ;-) When one becomes ill, the whole community organizes quickly to support that person through prayer, fundraising, meals, and more.
The kids in our community know each other through cooperative classes and extracurricular activities. And, this year, a well-liked teenaged homeschooled student was diagnosed with cancer. I don’t want to give details on the public forum because it’s not my story to share. But, when this young man was diagnosed, the entire community rallied around him immediately: cooking and delivering dinners to the family; praying together for him; donating money; fundraising through the sale of t-shirts and other things with well wishes to him printed on them. The other night, we attended a benefit concert, with all the musical talents within our homeschool community performing to raise money for his family.
We’ve had so much tragedy within our community, though. There are many people living in difficult circumstances, but there’s a lot of support here. I wanted you and everyone to know that it can be a good option sometimes. I suppose, like everything, though, it sometimes depends on where you live and who you know.
Great info on the homeschooling community. I did not know how well organized some groups are.
I was raised Catholic and schooled Catholic. So same surprise here. Parish I grew up in was tight and closed ranks to support the elderly, widows, orphans and sick.
Maybe these Catholic schools are becoming too “corporate” in design now and not anchored to a specific parish. Thus losing the community aspect of the experience. My sister’s kids were in a parish school but it closed as well as a few others and they went to a consolidated Catholic school. Not the same as you have 5 parishes worth of kids in one big school now.
We had the option of an Army compassionate reassignment to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio at Brooke Army medical. That’s where my son spent most of the summer for his treatments. We decided to return to our civilian and military community based on a solid stream of support from fellow Christians, neighbors, friends and military unit. We also made new friends at the local Children’s hospital.
Reminds me...my son made friends with another kid with a rare form of leukemia at the hospital and at camp. We learned last month the kid had a relapse and now will undergo a bone marrow transplant. Please keep Patrick in your prayers.
God Bless you for what you do here.