The Catholic Standard & Times - Solebury School students play escort at Planned Parenthood abortion clinic

Solebury School students play escort at Planned Parenthood abortion clinic

by Susan Brinkmann
CS&T Correspondent

Community outrage is growing over a field trip to an abortion clinic that was sponsored by the Solebury School in New Hope.

More than a dozen teenagers from the school were bused to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Warminster on Friday, Sept. 29, where they spent several hours inside the clinic, and even donned the vests worn by escorts who meet and accompany women coming for abortions.

According to Jason Gordon, the social science teacher who accompanied the students, the trip was part of an “activism” class.

“It’s a survey course,” Gordon said. “We’re looking at activism throughout history, pretty well centered in American activism, the civil rights movement, the labor movement, the women”s movement, the environmental movement.”

With a group of pro-life demonstrators staging a peaceful prayer service at the curb less than 20 feet away, it might have been a powerful lesson, except for one thing: The students were only allowed to hear one side of the story.

“We tried to encourage them to come down and talk to us, to at least hear the other side of the story, but they weren’t allowed,” said Eileen Stone, a parishioner from St. Andrew parish in Newtown, who was praying with a half-dozen other citizens at the curb that day.

At one point, the clinic’s escorts played a radio loud enough to drown out the sound of the people at the curb, so students couldn’t hear them.

“This is very, very disturbing,” Stone said. “These students are only seeing one side. Shouldn’t they see another perspective? After all, education is about seeing the whole picture.”

The clinic refused to comment about the incident. Although a reporter from the Bucks County Courier Times was allowed to enter, a reporter from the Catholic Standard & Times was not permitted to do so.

Gordon said the students were not permitted to hear the pro-lifer’s talk about abortion because he did not want the class to become involved in any activism.

“They’re not doing activism inside the clinic,” he said. “We talked to some of the people inside who are involved in activism, but I didn’t want them to engage in any activism. So, to talk to these other people, we’d be making a statement for their side.”

Gordon said he gave the students another assignment for the course that involved looking up information on Web sites and contacting organizations to find out about what they do. When he was asked whether he gave Web sites that presented both points of view, he acknowledged that he did not.

“I wouldn’t say it was necessarily both sides,” Gordon said. “I don’t want to polarize things by saying this is one side and that’s another. The opposite of pro-choice is anti-choice. The opposite of pro-life is anti-life. If they say they’re pro-life, I can say I agree with people living. I’m not for people dying. But I’m also for people having a choice. I’m not for people not having a choice to do what they want. …

“I don’t impose anything on the kids,” Gordon insisited.

Helen Mazur, the director of development for Generation Life, said she was shocked to see students brought to an abortion clinic and acting as escorts.

“It was just so disturbing,” she said. “We couldn’t interact with them on a personal level the way the Planned Parenthood escorts could. The students were listening to us, though. We definitely made eye contact with some of the students and they were trying to hover around and hear what we were saying.”

When escorts began playing a radio to drown out the sound of the pro-life citizens at the curb, Mazur said, “I couldn’t take it anymore.”

She said she took a loudspeaker, and asked the students, “If they’re truly for choice, why don’t they want you to hear the other side of the story? To make a sound choice, you need both sides. Here they are, drowning us out with their music. How is that a choice?’

In addition to drowning them out, the clinic’s escorts openly mocked the pro-life demonstrators in front of the students.

“It’s so irresponsible for adults to act like this in front of kids,” Stone said. “And I think it’s very irresponsible for the administrator of any school to send children here to be brainwashed.”

Stone called the headmaster of The Solebury School, John Brown, to object. She said Brown told her he had no problem wi th school trip, and went on to justify it, saying it was “‘just a matter of opinion.’”

Brown did not return calls requesting him to comment.

“This is very, very disturbing. It’s a disgrace,” Stone said. “The school should be ashamed … for sending these kids here.”

Christine Parker, parish coordinator at Generation Life, said she had not seen anything like it before: “We’re so taken back by this. Things just keep getting worse. And this school has a “D” club — which stands for diversity.”

Eyewitnesses agreed that the school trip turned out to be a better example of intolerance than the respect for diversity that the school professes on its Web site:

“Solebury is committed to the tolerance, respect, and active concern for the greater human community that comes from embracing cultural, economic, and intellectual differences. At the same time we learn and grow from the challenges encountered in creating a diverse community.”

Contact Susan Brinkmann at fiat723@aol.com or (215) 965-4615.