Good for you, ungrateful Amanda Knox!

[pnwmom]

45. As a Catholic, you might like this other story.

She attended a Catholic high school as a non-Catholic scholarship student. A year or two after graduation she was swept up into the Italian nightmare, and initially found guilty. Her former high school went to work in her defense, holding fundraisers and writing letters. The principal also put out a statement on her behalf. I was so proud of that school's response. They KNEW her, and they weren't afraid to show they believed in her.

And this was the contemptuous response from a Seattle newspaper columnist -- from someone NOT connected with the school, who found the school's actions to be offensive.

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/preps-misguided-lesson/

Prep’s misguided lesson


A suggestion to Seattle Prep President Kent Hickey: Lose the “We.”

You can’t assume every family connected with your Jesuit school is convinced alumna Amanda Knox is worthy of the fundraising and letter-writing campaign that kicks off tonight at a Metro League basketball game.

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Why not raise money for a food bank? Why not write lawmakers about funding higher education?

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Hickey defended his support of Knox with calm and grace Monday. He stressed to me that any letters written or money donated would be voluntary.

“It’s really pretty simple,” he said. “She’s a graduate of Seattle Prep and is going through a very difficult time and we are going to try to do things to support her.”

He said cura personalis or “care for the person” is the heart of Jesuit education.

“The words are meaningless unless they are lived,” he said, “even if (maybe especially if) living them out is difficult or unpopular. When we voice a commitment to cura personalis but then pick and choose to whom we should extend our care, then I would question our real commitment to this principle.”

https://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2010/11/8/seattle-prep-amanda-knox-1210

Why was this high school, so seemingly incongruous with what the world knew about Amanda Knox, sticking its neck out for her? The answer is as complex as the murder mystery itself.

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She wasn’t Catholic. And she didn’t dress like the other students, either. Whatever fashion prevailed for 14-year-old girls in 2001, when Amanda entered Prep, it’s doubtful it involved mismatched socks and jeans under skirts. “Amanda was not into wearing the right clothes and the right makeup,” Edda says. “She’s always been a free spirit. Very hippie. She was born in the wrong decade.”

And yet in other ways Amanda and Prep were a perfect match. The high school has a reputation for academic rigor, and Amanda, who’d read Beowulf by sixth grade, wanted a challenge. She applied and was not only accepted by Prep—which admits a limited number of non-Catholics—but won a scholarship to the school. The whole family rallied to make it work. Her grandmother, aunt, and stepfather took turns driving her to school. She often rode the Metro bus back to West Seattle at night.

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By the time she graduated from Prep in 2005—with a 3.9 grade point average—Knox was also known campuswide for being particularly kind and warmhearted. One of her close friends in the drama department was openly gay. In solidarity, Amanda helped him organize Seattle Prep’s first gay-straight alliance. Years later, her penchant for kindness and justice would come back around.