Fuck the Diocese of San Diego

The principal of Uni at the time Dr. Richard R. Kelly was a man known for having a heart of gold. He helped the teachers in need by providing them wise advice and even one day bought the whole senior class pizza with money out of his own pocket starting the well known tradition we have today at Uni now funded by the school. After the announcement he, along with the support of the whole faculty, requested that the school should keep its current name but despite the assurance received from the Diocese Bishop Brom unexpectedly announced on a visit to Uni that the name will change to Cathedral Catholic High School. He announced it without any prior notification or even asking for the opinions of the USDHS community. Similarly to the British imposing Intolerable Acts for punishment on the colonies in 1774, the Diocese changed the name without giving us any virtual representation. Students today dislike the name of Cathedral Catholic High. At the time I believed it was a small price to pay for moving to a brand new school. I also believe that this should have been discussed more instead of a sudden change announced by the Bishop himself. This became the first nail in the coffin for Uni. The next came from the selection of a contractor.

I do not have much information on the selection of the contractor but I am going to try my best to describe it the way I heard it without bashing him to much. According to the reports of the new school and its physical appearance, it is completely breathtaking and truly a marvel to look at. Now for all those who are saying to themselves right now why are you complaining about a brand new school, I am not complaining about the school campus itself. I am complaining about the contractor who planned for it. Although they were indeed fully qualified to build the new school they apparently have never built a school before. In fact the Diocese chose the lowest bidder to build the new school. The contractor had absolutely no idea how to construct the school to correctly accommodate the needs and expectations of the students. The first mistake they made in building the new school was the paint. Everyone who attends or visits Uni can pretty easily deduce that the school colors are red and gold. The faculty even went to the new school for a tour with the contractor before anything was painted sporting the red and gold colors of USDHS. The contractor completely oblivious to this well known fact thought our colors were red and green. Amazingly after seeing the green branch on our emblem he believed green was one of our school colors. Luckily before more green paint could be used he was stopped and enlightened. I believe some green paint can still be seen today on the new campus, a reminder to his inexperience in building schools. The designs of the gym and field were also flawed beyond belief. In the original design for the gym, one door would be the only way in and out of the gym. Now for a school with a thousand plus students who use the gym for their Mass’s this could cause quite a problem. Also it’s a major hazard and could lead to the deaths of many students. Imagine if an earthquake or fire started with all those students inside the gym. No practice drills can train students to exit the gym in a nice orderly fashion when there’s only one door! Fortunately the design was revised and now there are many doors leading in and out of the gym. To give credit to the contractors for trying, the gym is very nice and beautiful now that it is not a death trap. The football field, which I think could be the easiest part of the school to design, was built with a major flaw that will anger all students from now till future generations. The visitor side apparently accommodates a significantly larger amount of people than the home side. I really do not know how this happened but I can only say if we would have hired a more experienced contractor this probably would not have happened. Other small things that the Diocese requested also infuriated the community of USDHS. The lockers are not only smaller than the current ones, which are barely big enough to hold all our books, but the tops are slanted so nobody can put their belongings such as sports equipment on top of them. The Diocese explanation, it looks bad. Baseball and lacrosse players carry with them a large bag of God knows what with them. Now that they can’t store them on top of lockers there are only two logical places they can place them. One would be the floor, which would defeat the purpose of “looking nice.” The other would be inside class rooms, which yet again defeats the purpose and causes a fire hazard. Also another rule from the Dioceses that angered the teachers would be not being allowed to decorate their rooms with picture and posters because they said it will look tacky. This blatantly prohibits an individual from being who they are and expressing themselves. I think most people would think tacky room would be more appealing to the eye than a dull room. Please do not take my bashing the wrong way, I am only trying to simply state that it is the Diocese’s fault. A mature sixteen year old could have handled the situation better than the Diocese. They either should have never planned for the move or shelled out their precious money for a more decent contractor with more experience. Money tends to be the root of another problem I believe corrupts the Diocese.

The new school supposedly costs the Diocese millions of dollars but since they do not earn their own money it is costing the Catholic people of San Diego who are paying for the new school with their donations millions of dollars. I do not know exactly how the inner financial systems of the Diocese work but I do know their methods of trying to pay off the debt. The first “money saver” they tried was choosing the lowest bidder as I mentioned previously. A logical choice yet a little risk that turned out to be a bad choice in the long run. Second, they increased the tuition payment for the new school. I am sure this one will hit some parents hard and anger others. Another logical choice made but at the cost of maybe a few families leaving the school. The third and most shocking action they took to pay it off were the pay cuts of the whole faculty at Uni. This will inevitably lead to the departure of many well known teachers that have become treasures to the Uni community. Their departures combined with the departures of those planning not to return next year will forever change the community. It clearly will not be the same Uni people have come to know. The pay cuts may have been the result of Dr. Kelly’s kind personality. The final blow to the Uni legacy came from the departure of Dr. Kelly. Most people do not know it but he was asked to leave by the Bishop. This proves that the Diocese is holding a silent grudge against Uni for some unknown reason. Dr. Kelly provided advice to many of the past and present teachers of Uni. He is a humble person who only seems to give and wants the best for this community. When the Diocese announced a requirement for all teachers to reapply, which means the Diocese will decide who stays and who doesn’t, for Cathedral next year Dr. Kelly fought against it. Despite the verbal abuse he received from the directors in the various board meetings he still fought for the faculty. In the end he came out victorious only to be shot down by being asked to leave. After that it became clear that the price cuts were meant to punish the faculty for supporting Dr. Kelly. Is this how we repay our most memorable principal?

In conclusion I have little hope for next year considering the evil atrocities committed by the Diocese of San Diego. It’s ironic how they are a Catholic organization not upholding the Catholic values proclaimed by Jesus over two thousand years ago. I also have little hope that the ASB, who have been known for being completely useless in bridging the gap between the students and the administration, will take action in retaining the old values upheld in USDHS. It is time for the teachers who are against the Diocese to break their silence and speak out against the Diocese. I am not saying to take arms but I am saying that something needs to be done. We must all unite against this common evil because together we can peacefully resolve these issues and restore Uni to its glory days but since not even in this hopeless world this pathetic article can do anything about stopping incompetent people such as Tom Breecher and Bishop Robert H. Brom from dealing in absolutes, all I have to say is FUCK THE DIOCESE OF SAN DIEGO!