Posted on 09/26/2005 9:41:30 AM PDT by Conservative Lion
ONTARIO, Calif. — A Christian school expelled a 14-year-old student because her parents are lesbians, the school's superintendent said in a letter. Shay Clark was expelled from Ontario Christian School (search) on Thursday. "Your family does not meet the policies of admission," Superintendent Leonard Stob wrote to Tina Clark, Shay's biological mother. The school's policy states that at least one parent cannot engage in practices "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship," Stob wrote. Shay and her parents said they will not fight the ruling. Shay will attend public school next week. Stob could not be reached for comment. School administrators learned of the parents' relationship this week after Shay and another cheerleader were reprimanded for talking to the crowd during a Sept. 16 football game, according to Clark and her partner, Mitzi Gray. After school officials told Clark that her daughter could no longer attend the school, the mother was ordered to remove Shay from cheerleading practice, collect the girl's belongings and leave the property.
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Oh.. And did you mean to say, "Sikh" instead of sheik ?
1. I do not know.
2. Yes.
Wouldn't the child benefit from the Christian atmosphere of the school? It would seem to counterbalance what she is getting from home. This is a school whose mission is evidently to instill Christian values in its students. By expelling this student, the school has failed in its mission, at least in this case.
I don't believe the 14 year old is the party entering into a contract with the school. The parents/guardians apparantly have entered into the agreement. Many secondary educators believe the home environment and parental guidance is one of the most important factors in quality education.
Seems like they're penalizing the girl for the actions of the people she lives with. My guess is this will give her a definite opinion on Christianity, at least this particular flavor of it.
This is Ontario, California, not Canada.
Agreed. I can see this both ways. It's not the child's sin that is keeping her from the school. And it would be nice for this child to have exposure to Christian relationships since she has to live in such a clearly sinful household. What you say about all sin being anathema to God is so very true. It's just that this one is so open, making it easy to point to. My daughter went to a Christian school and became best friends with a girl who came from an awful situation (her mother was in jail), but she lived with Christian relatives. Still, she reverted right back to her mother's lifestyle when she left and I believe that my daughter was definitely harmed by her encounter with this girl. I did not pay that tuition for her to make that kind of association. There's no easy solution to this.
Maybe. But think about it. This girl will want to invite her friends home. Would you want your child in that environment? Even just to visit? Parents pay a lot of tuition to provide not only good instruction but a safe environment. I'm divided on this one, because what you say is true. When I first read about this, I tended to agree that the child should stay. But the more I've thought about it, I've begun to have reservations.
What a situation. I am very concerned about who my children associate with. From an early age I steered them and now they make that decision well. My main concern is with families who are too permissive, whose views on the media are too loose for me and who value "cool" kids as a good thing. Mine are in private school for that reason, too. But a non-sectarian one. The religious schools around here have as much problem if not more with drinking and drugs than other schools. I guess you can never tell.
That said, a lesbian family whose other parenting values fit mine would bother me less as an influence than a hetero one who is materialistic, permissive and disengaged.
Where is the father?
They might be adopted. I don't think any version of this I've seen tells us.
The parents and the child need to hear the truth, but when you sign up for a Christian school then you need to adhere to their beliefs and standards. They received the truth in this incident. What they do about it is their choice.
They actually followed their rules ! Excellent. HONOR and INTEGRITY! Things a liberal, leftist, socialist will NEVER understand.
I always worried about materialism too. But I just don't see how a lesbian couple could ever reflect my values. I'm not saying that they're all bad; I know better than that. But they've made a decision to live openly in sin and drag a child into it as well. I'm been rethinking a number of things lately. My daughter is in college and until several months ago, I thought she was doing wonderfully. Now I have reason to doubt and it concerns who she chooses for her friends. And that tendency to poor decision making began in a Christian school. So I would now think about these issues very differently.
I agree there are good and bad consequences for expelling her or not. I think the bottom line for the parents of other students in the school, and therefore the school, is to protect their children. I imagine that's a big part of the reason the parents don't have their children in gov't schools in the first place.
You are right, there are no easy answers to these dilemmas. What I never can grasp, however, is how the same parents who turn their back on Christianity, and who often are the ones criticizing or showing open hostility to Christianity, are the ones who are anxious for their child to have the benefit of education in that environment. It seems to me that if homosexual parents kept to their own priciples, they would not choose to enroll their children in a Christian school. I do think one of the most compelling arguments is that the parents of other students have made a choice (and sacrifices) to ensure their children attend school in a specific moral environment. But the question as to how the school can show a "hate the sin, love the sinner" attitude really is a knotty one.
It should be obvious that a homosexual couple cannot reproduce without third party assistance. The article says that these two dykes have been together for 22 years and have "3 daughters" apparently the spawn of anonymous sperm donors selected from a stud service for their good looks.
See message #34. I'm now tending to agree with you more and more. Children are not to experiment with. They are to protect until they are older.
The first Catholic school I attended was a small all girls' school, and you are right, they had some pretty wild students. The student body seemed divided into two groups: the ones whose parents sent them there for a good, Catholic education and who took it seriously, and the ones whose parents found themselves with wild girls and sent them to Catholic school "so the nuns could straighten them out." I transferred to a school that was much stricter (though co-ed and about ten times larger). So you are right, you never can tell.
My own goal for my children is for them not to be considered "cool"! That seems to be very important to some parents, and I do think it can be a recipe for disaster.
I'll bet that you are right.
I had an low-income acquaintance who was delighted to be able to get a scholarship to a highly regarded Christian school for her elementary-school age daughter. The daughter wrote a research paper in which she quoted a reference to a prehistoric animal. The teacher came down on her like a ton of bricks, humiliating her in front of her classmates and reducing the girl to tears. The mother put her back in public school. I never learned how that experience affected the girl's opinion of Christianity, but I can guess.
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