You may have seen the news in the paper: “The board created to save St. Dominic Academy’s high school from closure announced Friday evening it was ending its effort to keep the school open for the 2025-26 year.” Simply put, it didn’t have to be this way.

Frankly, it’s shocking that Bishop James Ruggieri would make the decision to close the school less than a year after becoming bishop of Portland in May of 2024. How could he possibly know what this high school has meant to the greater Lewiston-Auburn community for the past 80 years?

Does he know that he’s closing a school that was built on land gifted to the diocese by a generous community donor and with funds raised by the community members who have kept the diocese alive, even through scandal and the shameful actions of its leadership? The paltry amount of time he gave the impromptu board to raise $3 million — an arbitrary number, as far as anyone can tell — would suggest he has no idea.

Does he know how traumatic it is for kids who may have been in St. Dominic schools for more than a decade to now have to find a new high school to graduate from? The cavalier way in which he announced the high school’s closure and his reticence in even communicating with the school community would suggest he does not.

It stings particularly because the Church knows better. How do I know? Because it sends us the Virtus Bulletin every month to help community and staff members identify child abuse and mental health issues. It’s mandatory reading for all employees and volunteers, in fact. We have been trained to recognize the signs of trauma, depression and anxiety and we see them every day in our kids — kids who are already on edge, just by virtue of being high school kids in a turbulent world still recovering from the COVID pandemic’s life disruptions.

These kids are the future leaders of this community, and that’s not by accident. St. Dominic Academy has been an incubator for our area’s leaders since the day it opened. These kids are trained to raise their voices for the poor, the helpless, those who find themselves in need. And yet when the decision was made to close their school we were told to be quiet; don’t make any noise; don’t talk to the media.

In retrospect, following that direction was a mistake. Silence has only served to insulate this bishop-from-away from criticism and allowed him to pretend to speak for our community. He does not. He couldn’t even be bothered to ask us what this school means to us. He couldn’t even be bothered to let us try to save the school for our kids and the staff who have operated it with honor and distinction.

As for the stipulations and hoops created just to lease the building? It seems awfully hard to believe there isn’t already a plan in place for the building, a plan to monetize our pain and suffering. There’s no question this is hurting our community, hurting our children. Shame on the bishop and all of his underlings for their callousness. And shame on us for not holding them accountable for even considering this decision in the first place.

We have let our children down. No one will ever make me believe it had to be this way.