Letter to the editor: Sewickley Academy purge a disincentive for enrollment

Given excellent coverage by this newspaper, your reading public has been kept apace of the continuing turmoil at Sewickley Academy; the headmaster, five members of the administrative staff and a fifth-grade teacher purged.

The purge was initiated by a letter from several parents of Academy students which implored the board of trustees to focus upon academic excellence by removing “politics and activism out of the classroom.” The board acceded to the group’s demands upon its hope of arresting the Academy’s declining enrollment. The purge followed; and following that, a federal lawsuit was filed by a purged member, a Black and former head of admissions and financial aid.

To their likely disappointment and dismay, other parents and grandparents of Academy students, past and present, view the toxic mix of the lawsuit and the abrupt dismissal of the school’s academic leadership as a disincentive to increasing the school’s enrollment.

Yes, “restore the school as it used to be” by resuming and sustaining the honest and critical thinking characterizing the curriculum under the leadership of Cliff Nichols, Whitney Snyder, Jim Cavalier, et al. For those resistant and having a sense of guilt or discomfort with a fact-based curriculum, they might heed the recent words of a Yale history professor: “History is not therapy and discomfort is a part of growing up.”

Herman S. Harvey Jr.

Sewickley