My son Jimmy Heyward decided to run for Commissioner of School Spirit and Patriotism at his school this year. The Principal, Mary Flock, told him he needed to make changes to his speech. She wanted everything in his speech regarding patriotism to be removed, even though “Patriotism” was a part of the position’s title that he was running for. Ms Flock said that if he did not remove ALL parts about patriotism, he would not be able to read his speech to with the rest of the candidates.

Jimmy stood up to her and said he wasn’t going to take the parts about patriotism out of his speech. She then told him he would not be speaking. Jimmy sat on stage with all the other candidates while they said their speeches. Mary Flock directed the kids hosting the rally to skip Jimmy entirely. He was on the stage for an hour in front of his peers/teachers/parents being completely humiliated by Mary Flock.

 My husband upset with her decision told her and the Vice Principal, Caleb McFarren how out of line they were for not allowing Jimmy to speak to his classmates just because his views didn’t align with theirs. They told my husband to leave or they would call someone to make him leave. He said he wouldn’t as he was there to support his son and then walked to the opposite side of the gate, away from everyone else and all students/faculty. The principal then proceeded to call HBPD to further humiliate Jimmy. HBPD showed up spoke with my husband and got the whole story about Jimmy’s speech and what had happened. They then told him he was free to stay and watch with the rest of the families in attendance. When the officers were leaving they asked Ed to let Jimmy know that they said “Thank you” for the things he wrote in his speech.

Later in the day Mary Flock sent an email to all parents at SBS informing them of the incident but completely lying about what truly happened earlier in the day. This woman has no business being in a head position at our school, or any school.

This kind of behavior is unacceptable and does not align with the values we expect from our school's leadership. We demand that Mary Flock be removed as principal immediately.

Sign this petition to support a change in leadership at Saint Bonaventure Catholic School.