Sacramento Jesuit High alumni protest school’s ‘final’ decision to include girls
Parents and alumni of Jesuit High School in Carmichael are doggedly fighting back against the Catholic all-boys school’s recent decision to begin accepting girls in 2027.
About 50 people rallied outside the campus Tuesday to “save” the school. Many wore custom red hats reading “MAKE JESUIT ALL BOYS AGAIN” featuring the same design of President Donald Trump’s famous “Make American Great Again” caps, but with yellow text to represent the school’s colors.
The rally was part of the movement to “preserve Jesuit tradition” that has emerged since the school announced the impending shift to allow girls into its historically male student body. A group of parents and alumni have spent the past month raging against what school leaders say is a nonnegotiable final decision.
“Every generation leaves us with fewer and fewer real men, and this is the last place in our community that still produces them and puts leaders out there,” said Tony Kafouros, a class of 2000 Jesuit High graduate. “So I am just hoping that particularly the alumni on the board will work with us to save this school.”
School leaders announced in October that Jesuit High would transition to a co-divisional model by the 2027-28 school year. Boys and girls will be separate for most classes save for electives and more advanced coursework. Most co-curricular activities, like arts and leadership programs, would be shared, but spiritual programming and retreats would remain separate.
After several tense school community meetings, hundreds of posts on the “Preserve Jesuit” Facebook page and a campaign to raise pledges to aid the school’s projected budget shortfall, parents say they have been threatened with retaliation against their sons for organizing the effort to keep the single-sex model.
Several alumni at the rally mentioned a Facebook post made by former board chair Jim Donahue in which he warned people against participating in a public protest against the school, citing guidelines in the student parent handbook that say students can be expelled for making posts online that are “contrary to the mission and philosophy of Jesuit High School.”
“The expansion is going to happen, as the decision has repeatedly been stated to be final,” he wrote. “Staging a protest and inviting media is ill advised, as it will not achieve any desired effect.”
A few people watched the rally from a distance, wearing masks and sunglasses to conceal their identities. One woman said that she was a current parent afraid to participate due to the possibility of retaliation and would not publically share her identity.
In response to questions about parents’ fear of retaliation, a spokesperson for the school said that they invited parents and alumni to directly voice their concerns to the school.
“We continue to invite others to contact us directly to engage in an open and respectful conversation with the school through appropriate channels,” President Chris Alling said in a statement. “We are here to listen and engage thoughtfully and intentionally with factual information in a productive manner that follows our shared values and cura personalis.”
Change vs. tradition
Jesuit High administrators and board members have cited financial challenges stemming from declining enrollment as the prevailing reason for the historic change. Enrollment reached a 30-year low last year at 894 students, leaving more than 200 vacant seats at the school as inflation drives up costs.
But alumni and parents resist the school’s account of its financial and enrollment issues. Sandy Malaney, who arranged Tuesday’s “Save Jesuit” rally on campus, has also organized a campaign which she says has amassed $3.7 million in conditional pledges to the school should it remain for boys only.
After gathering the pledges with relative ease, she questions whether the school meaningfully engaged in fundraising opportunities. The pledges were gathered via a Google form.
Alling said that the school was made aware of the form collecting anonymous pledges.
“We responded that the Board of Trustees’ decision is final and Jesuit will not accept anonymous or conditional pledges, especially when they conflict with the mission and direction of the school,” he said. “However, the engagement from this small group demonstrates the passion people have for our school.”
David Leatherby, a 1974 graduate and owner of Leatherby’s Family Creamery, doesn’t buy that local demographics and declining rates of Catholicism are the reason behind the school’s enrollment troubles.
“My friends, my kids, they won’t send their kids here now because it’s — I’ll use a word that may not be politically correct — but it’s become a woke environment,” Leatherby said. “The people who have shown leadership here are of a certain persuasion. And so my daughters, who have boys, they won’t send their kids here because they’re afraid they’ll lose their faith.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2025 at 7:51 PM.
