An elite New York City girls’ preparatory school that claims to be “rooted in the Catholic tradition” is encouraging its Pre-K-12 students to separate themselves into groups by race, ethnicity, and gender identity, with the aim of finding “safe spaces” to “develop a stronger sense of self.”

The website of Marymount School of New York states the school is a “Catholic day school” that provides students with “pause for reflection at weekly chapel services as well as at regular Masses.”

“The program includes preparation for the sacraments of First Eucharist, Reconciliation, and Confirmation,” the school’s website continues.

With annual tuition of $54,000, the school not only encourages students to join groups and gatherings for specific races and ethnicities, but also aims to help students “increase awareness about sexuality and gender diversity.”

Marymount’s gender identity “safe space for LGBTQ+ students” is called Prism, and hosts events such as “Bias Awareness Day” and “Ally Week,” the latter of which was celebrated last week.

The Federalist reported Friday on Marymount’s Ally Week, which, the report said, featured “four days of leftist gender theory indoctrination.” The report included information concerning an email that was sent out from the school about the event.

Ally Week apparently included the themes of “Sexuality & Gender,” “LGBTQ+ History and Important Figures,” “How to Be an Ally,” and a “Day of Silence,” a national day during which LGBTQ activist groups urge students to “take a vow of silence” to draw attention to “anti-LGBTQ behavior.”

The report noted:

Ally Week began with the theme “Sexuality & Gender.” The email sent out to students attempted to explain the supposed differences between sexuality and gender, noting that “[t]ypically people incorrectly conflate the definition of sex with ‘sex assigned at birth’” and that “[g]ender is associated with how a person expresses themself.” The school also claimed there are “upwards of 46 different sexes.”

The email reportedly included a diagram of the “Genderbread Person,” which is often used to promote the concept of gender identity vs. biological sex. An example of the diagram is in the tweet below:

“It is brainwashing,” the father of an eighth-grade girl who said he is removing his daughter from the school, told the Federalist about the diagram. “It’s the equivalent of giving drugs. They’re normalizing bad behavior in sweet, innocent tones for things that are very weird and very complex.”

An unlisted YouTube video that recorded a chapel service on April 12 also reportedly showed a student placing a “rainbow” face mask over a statue of the Virgin Mary, the Federalist reported as well.

In 2016, Pope Francis referred to gender theory as a “great enemy” of marriage, and added that gender ideology is part of a global war of ideas that is meant to destroy traditional marriage between one man and one woman.

The pope criticized gender theory for its denial of “the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman,” and for its aim of creating “a society without sexual differences.”

Marymount’s embrace of “woke” identity politics made headlines this week at the Daily Mail as well after the school sent out invitations to a welcome reception solely for “parents of new students of color,” the report read about the May 20 event.

‘My jaw hit the floor when I first saw it,” one parent told the Daily Mail. “I mean what is the school thinking? I’m 100% pro-diversity, I just don’t feel this is the right way about it.”

“How does this help anyone’s cause?” the parent added. “If anything, many parents feel this creates more division – it singles out the parents of color. What is the school trying to achieve here?”

Marymount refers to its racial, ethnic, and gender identity groups as “affinity groups,” which it defines as “intentional gatherings of people who share a similar identity.”

“These groups are places of reflection, dialogue, and support – safe spaces where students can process their emotions, develop a stronger sense of self, and build a common language to address issues of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender diversity,” the school states.

Marymount has separate “affinity groups” for Asian, black, “Latinx,” and its “Prism” group for LGBTQ students.

Breitbart News reached out to Marymount School of New York for comment and received the following response attributed to a Marymount spokesperson:

“Marymount is a Catholic institution that works to value and affirm the intrinsic dignity of each of our students and people from all backgrounds.”