It’s been more than a month since St. Agatha Catholic School, a small K-8 institution in Southeast Portland, first made news for rescinding the enrollment of a student with same-sex parents, as first reported by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Since then, several parents have pulled their children out of the school, because of the decision of Rev. Luan Tran, the priest at St. Agatha. At least one teacher has also resigned, as a result.

But key details about how many students have left — and the impact on St. Agatha and surrounding schools — remain virtually unknown. The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon and Catholic schools in the area have said very little since the news first broke.

Tran said in a July 24 email that rescinding the enrollment was his decision.

“I want to be clear and transparent in sharing that this decision was made solely under my pastoral authority and discernment, as pastor of both the parish and the school,” Tran wrote.

Tran also seemingly referred to the situation in an Aug. 3 church bulletin.

“Ultimately, families who seek enrollment in our Catholic school must be able and willing to support the goals of Catholic education,” Tran wrote. “This includes the ability to provide a home environment that has reasonable hope of supporting and modeling a life of holiness, virtues, and Christian discipleship in conformity with all the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

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OPB spoke to four different families who recently left St. Agatha. All of them said that Tran’s decision violated their core values and left them searching for other schools.

“My level of trust and respect with the leadership was just fundamentally undermined,” said Sarah Wilson, who had two children at St. Agatha. “Just the way that the entire situation was handled, with just an utter lack of transparency and utter lack of accountability.”

Erin McGibbon said she started the process of transferring her daughter soon after Tran’s decision became public. She said it was, in part, because of all the LGBTQ+ people in her life.

“We can’t stand in front of a community that we love and our child loves and somehow say to them, ‘This decision is something we can live with,’” McGibbon said.

Tran and Principal Trista Casey of St. Agatha declined to comment on this story and referred all questions to the archdiocese. OPB sent multiple emails to the archdiocese, but received no response.

Eighth-grade teacher Sam Lloyd said he resigned from his position after reading initial news reports about the school’s decision.

“The decision itself just goes against my personal values,” Lloyd told OPB. “I don’t see why we should not admit the child of gay parents. I don’t find a strong theological argument for it.”

Most families said they considered moving their children to either Holy Family or St. Ignatius Catholic, because they were seen as being more tolerant of LGBTQ+ topics. Three families confirmed to OPB they had transferred their children to Holy Family.

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Holy Family Principal Joe Galati confirmed in an Aug. 27 interview that his school had received students from St. Agatha, but offered few other details.

Asked how many St. Agatha students have transferred to his school, Galati said “three to four” had moved to Holy Family within the previous two weeks. That figure doesn’t account for families that transferred in days following the news about St. Agatha.

Galati declined to provide the total number of students Holy Family has received.

The actual number is likely much higher. OPB spoke with four different families, with at least five children, who have left St. Agatha and enrolled at Holy Family.

St. Agatha parent Wilson said on the first day of school Tuesday, she saw about eight families that had previously been enrolled at the school.

OPB also asked Galati if incoming families had inquired about the school’s policies on LGBTQ+ issues. He declined to offer specifics.

Representatives from St. Ignatius School also declined OPB’s requests for an interview.

The departure of multiple students also raises questions about the potential financial impact on St. Agatha. The school charges between $8,580 to $11,850 annually per student, according to the school’s website.

It’s unclear how big of a financial setback the school faces, because the school has repeatedly declined to specify how many students are enrolled there. A front desk employee at St. Agatha told OPB on Thursday that the school does not release enrollment data.

But parents said their concerns do not stop at St. Agatha. In recent years, Archbishop Alexander Sample has increased his attention on education within the archdiocese, which spans all of Oregon west of the Cascades.

Sample closed the archdiocese’s department of schools and fired its superintendent in 2023, after he released guidance that all students should use their names, pronouns and bathrooms corresponding with their assigned sex at birth, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

“None of the Catholic schools are immune from that,” Wilson said. “They will all be kind of susceptible to that.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/06/st-agatha-catholic-school-lgbtq-parents/