Posted on 09/26/2005 10:31:48 PM PDT by Bonaparte
Daughter of lesbian couple expelled By Mason Stockstill, Staff Writer ONTARIO - A Chino couple plans to picket a Christian school in Ontario on Monday because officials expelled their daughter after learning her parents are lesbians. Tina Clark said the superintendent of Ontario Christian High School gave her a letter explaining that 14-year-old freshman Shay Clark was being kicked out because her parents' sexual orientation is "inconsistent with a positive Christian life style." "My sexual orientation should have nothing to do with her getting an education," Tina Clark said. "I'm the one that's gay. My daughter's not. Why should her civil rights be infringed?" Shay was crushed by what happened earlier this week, which she said came as a surprise. "I knew that I might have problems," Shay said. "But I never thought it would go that far." Principal Tim Hoekstra and Superintendent Len Stob did not return repeated calls Thursday and Friday seeking comment. Phone calls to several school trustees also were not returned. Clark and her partner, Mitzi Gray, have been together for 22 years. They didn't expect Shay would experience discrimination at the school because her older sister had attended Ontario Christian schools from sixth through ninth grade. Additionally, Shay said her friends knew she lived in a home with two mothers, and "it was never a problem." On Tuesday, however, that changed. Gray said when she went to an unrelated parent meeting that Clark was unable to attend, school administrators were confused by her different last name. The next day, both women were called in and asked point-blank if they were gay, Clark said. When they said they were, Shay was expelled. "These are the same people that patted me on the back the Friday before that and asked me how my week had gone," Clark said. The family's situation is not unusual, said Johnny Chagolla of the Rainbow Pride Youth Alliance, a gay-rights organization in San Bernardino. Often, he said, students at religious schools are more likely to face discrimination. "In cases like this, there's a concern," Chagolla said. "A lot of (religious school officials) say they're very open and affirming, and then you see this, and it contradicts what they're saying." A similar situation arose earlier this year at a Catholic school in Costa Mesa, when parents pressured administrators into barring gay parents after a gay couple enrolled their twin sons at the school. Ontario Christian is affiliated with the Christian Reformed Church, a denomination that considers homosexuality a "condition of disordered sexuality," according to the Web site of the Christian Reformed Church of North America. The church considers the act of homosexual sex to be a sin, which "must be condemned as incompatible with obedience to the will of God as revealed in scripture." However, according to the group's Web site, the church should help gay Christians and "give them support toward healing and wholeness." As the family gathered outside the school for a news conference Friday, students and staff peered at the scene out of the windows. Receptionist Cory Overstreet said administrators would not be available to comment. According to the letter signed by Stob, school officials were not aware of Clark and Gray's relationship at the time Shay was admitted. But both women said that question was never asked, and that both of their names were included in all of the required paperwork. "Had we known they were against homosexuality, we would never have sought this school out," Gray said. "It wasn't like we announced it to the world, but it wasn't a secret, either. We've always been a family." Shay's educational future is unclear. At first, Clark had hoped there was a way Shay could return to Ontario Christian. But now, no one in the family backs that idea. The family is looking for another private school Shay can attend, but the admissions process is typically long, and she might not get in anywhere this year. Public school will probably be the answer for now, Clark said. After she gets to a new school, the family may consider legal action, Clark said. The expulsion was difficult for Shay, who said she is upset about being separated from her friends. As for the school's leadership, "They should be embarrassed," Shay said. - Mason Stockstill can be reached by e-mail mason.stockstill@dailybulletin.com , or by phone at (909) 483-9354
Women plan to protest outside Ontario Christian school
The child IS getting an education. The lesson here is that the homosexual sexual PREFERENCE is an abnormal lifestyle choice.
She is also getting a lesson that she has ONE mother and the other woman is just the recreational orgasm partner of the woman.
I think that these are two different issues. You are asking if Christian schools should accept kids whose parents aren't believers. These parents signed an agreement stating that at least one of them was living a Christian life.
I think that Christian schools could be great places for outreach. However, when parents are deceitful, unfortunately, their kids pay a price.
Christian education is about making a sort of Christian 'ghetto' for kids to be educated in...one that shields kids from blatant disregard for God's word. To not know that Christians have a problem with homosexuality is to be stupid or to be pretending so as to hide your true agenda. If the school knew about the girl's situation, they might have erred on the side of grace, I hope. But now, they are dealing with people who have lied to them outright about core convictions that they hold dear so that their kid could go to a good school. That's wrong. There are consequences for wrong behavior.
And, BTW, this kid was paying a price before she ever enrolled at the school.
You'd expose other kids to that lifestyle? I sent my daughter to Christian school to keep her AWAY from it.
We can hope that they put it to prayer. There are some details lacking, such as what this child said at the football game, other behaviors, the contents of the meeting with the parents.
This is hard any way you slice it.
We are damned if we do...damned if we don't
here is what you are missing from the article....
"They didn't expect Shay would experience discrimination at the school because her older sister had attended Ontario Christian schools from sixth through ninth grade. "
Her sister already attended. Are these girls gay? Are they recruiting? What about the other children in the school whose parents are alcoholics, adulterers, into porno.... That is sin correct? But are the children doing it? Are they bringing that into the school? If so then there is a problem I agree. But it would seem to me that this girl NEEDS to be in a Christian Environment.
And he wasn't an impressionable child.
This is tough, but I'm with Walkingfeather, though. Our kids have to learn sometime that being a Christian means reaching out to others. We choose to homeschool for this very reason. I want my kids to learn to reach out to other kids in a controlled atmosphere where we can talk and pray about what is going on.
If the school administration allowed a couple of struggling kids into the community to be witnessed to and ministered to, what is the harm?
Well we were promised that we would be mocked and persecuted, have false witness against us, beaten, thrown in jail and killed. What did I miss here>?
I would say I would rather be damned by a human court of law then Damned by the Father of all Mankind.
I think this is wrong thinking. As He was walking through the City, and maybe even visiting one of cool furniture store owners in the Castro, he'd say, "follow me" and he'd leave the castro. He never made his home in the midst of sin, and He always called people away from their sin. He never winked at it. He never condoned it. He had people choose to be "forgiven and healed" and to "go and sin no more." There wasn't usually long discussion of it either, He gave a choice and let people go that didn't want to leave their sin. I think you're right though, that a lot of our churches (and Christian Schools) would wrinkle their noses at who Jesus befriended and changed along the way.
True, but at some point, parents have to take responsibility to teach their kids how to deal with such matters. A teenager is certainly old enough to learn how to understand that there are lies out there, and that these lies hurt people that we are told to reach out to and love.
I hear you. It is tough, especially when the kids are impressionable and easily manipulated. But we have to take responsibility, be involved, know our kids' friends. It is not enough to assume that the Christian school or youth pastor will disciple them...we have to be the ones who take the lead.
My daughters school did this and it was a mistake. They couldn't get the girls to dress according to the code, they wore no bras and extremely short skirts. One went around threatening to beat anyones a$$ that got in her way. A boy they allowed in was caught selling drugs......it was disruptive in the extreme.
Exactly! But there was also a third option, allowing the child to attend the school. They would have to teach her the Chrisitian truth that her mother's lifestyle is sick, twisted and evil, and that God destroyed cities because of the acts that her mother performs every day, and that living together out of wedlock is sinful. This would certainly have caused the girl grave emotional pain. The school would have then opened itself up to another type of lawsuit, and was left by these lesbian deceivers with no easy way out.
The homosexual perverts are very clever in a sinister way. As the Bible warns:
"for the children of this world are more shrewd in their dealings with their own generation than are the children of light". (Luke 16:8)
Yes, He did. And she responded by believing, witnessing and sending Him more believers. That was after just a few minutes with Him.
Gray and Clark, after many years of opportunity to do the same, are as defiant and unrepentant as ever, continuing to teach their child that homosexuality is morally acceptable to God -- while signing an Article of Faith agreement they are clearly not in accord with.
The woman at the well abandoned her water jar for the living water Jesus promised.
Which hits on the other twist in this case. Another agenda item.
After all these two have been together for 22 years, according to the article, and their 14 year old is being discriminated against because they can't just have a normal marriage..../sarc
How'd they do that, anyway? Is the girl's dad another wanker with a turkey baster?
Clearly, there are people who do not want to leave their sin. But do we give up? I have heard statistics that people have to hear the gospel an average of seven times before they accept it.
Oh, and thank the Lord that people did not give up on me when I was in the pit of hell, doing things that I am not proud of. My sin was never winked at, but longsuffering people recognized that I was still a person who needed Christ and was at least willing to associate with people who knew Him as Savior.
Then as an administrator, you deal with that. You let the kids know that it is a privilege, not a right. And that disruptive behavior will go out the door.
Which brings me back to my "I wonder what the kid did at the football game to warrant a parent conference" question.
Are her mothers teaching in school? Besides you are naive if you think you are keeping ANY KID away from sin by sending them to a Christian School. I went to one of the MOST consevative Christian universities in the country. You couldnt even wear shorts on campus. Swimming with the opposite sex was considered MIXED BATHING. Okay... when I was in college there were drugs of all kinds, I would say 1/2 of all the kids drank to the point of being drunk. The worst ones were either EK's ( elders kids or PK's Preachers kids. Now do you know how many parents had the same attitude as you have now...??? " I am sending them there to keep her or him away from it?
The best thing you can do is pray for your child and have an authentic life. BTW when you are around Christians all the time your faith is not challenged. The weakest point in my faith was when I went to a "Christian" University.
Oh, I hear you. These two are biting the hand that feeds them in that they signed an Article of Faith that snubs the whole intent of such a covenant.
Yet, I still think that longsuffering is necessary for some. IT was for me. I was hostile to the faith, but people kept loving me in spite of my sin. We're not Jesus...only people who know in part and prophecy in part.
That is exactly the question: Should the kids be the ones to pay?
Christian education is about making a sort of Christian 'ghetto' for kids to be educated in...one that shields kids from blatant disregard for God's word. To not know that Christians have a problem with homosexuality is to be stupid or to be pretending so as to hide your true agenda.
I know all about the "ghetto for kids to be educated in". For the past three years, we had a Christian school in our third floor with a Christian teacher and 10 students.
A true Christian teacher tells it as she sees it regardless of the lifestyle of the parents. It is the homosexual parent, not the Christian school, who would be put on the defensive.
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