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Our Commitment to Building a Fair and Just Society

The extreme pain and suffering we have witnessed, experienced and mourned over the past three weeks is sadly not new to our country. Our way forward is to strongly and vocally denounce racism and to do all that we can to build a fair and just society. We continue to invite our broader community of parents, alumni and friends to join us in our work . We appreciate and honor the passion shared by our students, faculty, parents and alumni as they offer their hopes for how our community can be an agent in ending systemic racism.  

Schools of the Sacred Heart - San Francisco amplifies the commitment from our Sacred Heart Provincial when we say that we “strongly condemn[s] the gross violation of human dignity that we, along with millions of others, witnessed in the video of George Floyd’s last minutes. We are outraged at yet another killing of an unarmed African-American man, and stand in solidarity with all people of color who are at risk of violence in our country. We also call for a quick and fair legal process to ensure accountability and justice.

“Each of us is created in the image of God, brothers and sisters, united and equal in God’s eyes. The reality is that people of color in the United States are living every day with what all of us watched in the George Floyd video. We pledge to raise our voice in opposition to acts of racial discrimination and to fight tirelessly against the sin of racism.

“We stand with the U.S. bishops’ pastoral, Open Wide Our Hearts, in calling for a “genuine conversion of heart, a conversion that will compel change and the reform of our institutions and society.”

School leadership and our Board of Trustees are committed to sustaining the mission of Sacred Heart education to developing a fair and just society and to forming a community that is diverse in its student population, teaching staff and Board composition.

In the mission of the Society of Sacred Heart, “Cor Unum” draws all of us to the center of the heart of God. It is at that center that we believe that all people are and must be held as equal, unconditionally loved and valued. Therefore our statement of equity, Cor Unum, defines our conviction that innately human differences should be recognized, honored and celebrated; Cor Unum is rooted in the motto of the Religious of the Sacred Heart: “Cor unum et anima una in Corde Jesus.”

The Organizational Learning Committee of the Board will have oversight over the current and new initiatives included in the school’s Strategic Plan to support and execute our “Cor Unum” work in an even more accelerated mode. In particular, we will continue and amplify our efforts to:

  • Build diversity among our students, faculty, staff, administration and Board 

  • Engage our entire community in ways of living in a culture of Cor Unum

  • Equip an even broader portion of our school in Dialogue Training and gather the empathetic learnings that result from active listening and authentic dialogue

  • Open channels for feedback from all constituencies

  • Engage impactful speakers for our Cor Unum Week 

  • Present diverse voices and aspects of the human condition in developing student summer reading lists

  • Lead discussion groups on this year’s required summer reading that centers on anti-racism

  • Provide extensive lists of resources on anti-racism to students and families

  • Support our students' voices in standing for social justice

  • Inspired by the tenets of our International Baccalaureate curriculum to offer an education that is expansive, inclusive and sensitive to the world’s most pressing issues and needs — locally, nationally and globally — we will develop “inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.” 

In addition to the actions and experiences we have engaged as part of our strategic work, we will continue to listen and further develop our plans and programming.

We charge all members of our community to be aware of societal structures that need to be reformed as well as to tend to each of our own individual innate biases. We invite you once again to view the talk from Dr. Kang delivered to our school on April 28. 

At this time, as a Sacred Heart community, we look deeply within and seek always to be better.

Sincerely, 


Ann Marie Krejcarek 
President, Convent & Stuart Hall

Holden Spaht
Chair, Board of Trustees