Seton School

This is an incredibly poorly run school. The negative reviews of this establishment are correct. The staff consists of incompetent fools and the environment is exceptionally judgmental. I don’t believe I need to say more as I feel this place has been sufficiently described in the other aforementioned negative reviews. It would very much be in your best interests to send your children somewhere else.

A lot of the things that people list in the one star reviews are things for which those who have been in the Seton community a long time would give it five stars.nnI had my fair share of problems with this school and ended up not finishing my final year of high school there, so I am not some crazed Seton fan who thinks they can do no wrong, but I also cannot imagine having gone anywhere else for high school.nnTo a newcomer, the boys bathroom down the hall having two cold water knobs, no mirrors, and a temperature and humidity that is equal to whatever it is outside would be off-putting, but to the Seton community it’s just how things are in Siberia.nnTo an outsider, the use of the gym as a basketball court, church, concert hall, stage, soccer field, broom hockey court, science fair hall, Eucharistic adoration chapel, class sleepover space, and senior slave day auction sight might seem like an unorganized and poorman’s use of space, but to the Seton family it’s the model of the early church, utilizing our house for everything our community needs.nnTo a bitter alumni donor, spending money on a new chapel that does not even fit your small student body is a waste of space and resources, but to those who pray there it is keeping it small and beautiful, the way it’s always been.nnTo those grads who were looking for easy classes, standardized tests, and affirmation in their way of life no matter how immoral or anti-Catholic, you found rigorous academics, critical thinking, and an unapologetically Catholic education that does not shy away from our claim at having the fullness of revelation and objective truth.nnSome may see it as a small and exclusive group of ultra conservative Catholics, but it is actually a family of people who are not concerned with the ways of the world and instead are focused on getting one another to heaven.nnSome will focus on those who have left their faith after graduating, but for every one who has left their faith I’ll show you an alum who is a priest, a nun, or a faithful catholic married in the church with baby 7 on the way, winning each of those souls in their ever-growing family for Christ.nnSo sure you have a crazy teacher here and there who would never be hired in a public school and yes you might get a staph infection from kneeling on the gym floor, but at Seton our priorities are different. At Seton we strive to make saints first and to educate second. At Seton we honor heroes like Tom Vander Woude who died tragically to save his son. At Seton we pray outside of abortion clinics to save babies from being murdered. At Seton we don’t encourage sexual immorality or show pornography to 8 year olds and call it “sex education.”nnAt Seton, we look out for each other. At Seton, we try to love our neighbor which sometimes means admonishing their sins. And at Seton, our number one focus is Christ.

The staff's lack of education and compassion for is astounding

Seton School has provided a wonderful education of the whole person. We have been involved with the school for 15 years and are grateful for the solid Catholic education that our children have and continue to receive.

There are so many Seton alumni who have left the Church, and many credit their experiences at this school for hastening their deconversion process along exponentially. Even the alumni I know who are still Catholic all have bizarre stories about crazy teachers and bad experiences to share about Seton. There are a lot of bad aspects I could touch on, but I’ll touch on the three that I think damaged my thinking the most, even to this day: ruining my relationship with God, encouraging judgmental attitudes towards others and teaching poisonous perspectives about chastity.nnSeton teachers paid lip service to the idea that a relationship with Jesus was the most important thing in your life, but no one explained how to develop it. The strict rules of the school reflected the attitude they had about spirituality: hyper-focus on laws and obedience. I developed severe scrupulosity when I was a student there. There was so much emphasis on learning all the ways you could offend and anger God by doing something wrong and going to hell. I’ve spent years trying to unlearn my paralyzing fear of God and find peace.nnSecond, the teachers all demonstrated deeply judgmental attitudes towards anyone outside of the acceptable ultra-conservative Catholic bubble. Teachers mocked other religions in class and encouraged students to laugh along. They scorned obvious “demonic influences” like liberals, Protestants, the LGBT community, and feminists; and even other Catholics who were deemed “not Catholic enough” like charismatic Catholics, Catholics in the Byzantine Rite, or Catholics who even just agreed with some liberal government or economic policies. They didn’t just teach us what the Church taught, they encouraged demonizing, scorning, laughing at, and distancing yourself from anyone who disagreed.nnFinally, we were inundated with lectures about modesty and chastity that had a deeply harmful effect on my body image and relationships, and those of many of the alumni I know. As girls, we were taught that we were responsible for causing boys to sin if they looked at us with immoral thoughts. We heard that we had it coming to us if something bad happened while we were dressed immodestly. Teachers said boys preferred to marry virgins and wouldn’t want someone ruined. Chastity speakers they brought in told us all the classic horrible cliches: “You are a piece of gum, and if you let yourself get chewed by all these men you’ll lose your flavor and no one will want you. You are a rose, and if you rip out all your petals and give them away and no one will want a dead stem. You are a piece of duct tape, and if you stick yourself to all these surfaces you’ll lose your stickiness and be useless.” Years later when I broke some of these strict rules I plunged into deep depression. I was convinced that I was ruined and disgusting and no one would ever want to marry me. I’ve unfortunately heard many similar stories from other alumni. LGBT kids hating themselves for being “disordered”. Boys hating themselves for completely normal thoughts and feelings. Girls hating themselves for have desires, or feeling responsible for terrible things guys did to them. There are so many horrible and sad things I’ve heard from former students, I couldn’t even begin to fit it all in this review.nnI would never recommend this school to anyone. Yes, I know people who had decent experiences there, and seem like pretty level-headed Catholics now. But with the high rate of kids coming out horribly scathed... seems to me like it’s not worth the risk.