Posted on 05/16/2002 2:29:30 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
A private Christian school and a kindergartener's mother who stripteases for a living are quickly becoming the focus of the latest debate on religious freedom.
Officials of Capital Christian School in Sacramento, Calif., discovered that what they thought had been a private meeting with a mother of a kindergartner who violated her commitment to school policy had become a news story on the local CBS affiliate KOVR.
The story first came to the attention of WorldNetDaily when WND columnist Rebecca Hagelin was invited Wednesday morning to discuss the issue on CNN's popular afternoon talk show "Talk Back Live." The only information circulating at the time was a brief description of a broadcast report filed by KOVR-TV which broke the story late Tuesday evening.
The summary blurb summed up the story this way: "A mother says her daughter is getting expelled from kindergarten because mom is a part-time stripper. This is about a five-year-old girl who attends Capital Christian School in Sacramento. But her mother says when the school found out she was an exotic dancer they told her she had one week to get her daughter out of their school."
Since the school's position was entirely absent from the report, Hagelin contacted the pastor of Capital Christian Church, the sponsoring church of the school. Senior Pastor Rick Cole was clearly disturbed by the events and reluctant to discuss details. Cole did, however, agree to provide certain facts about the case that had not been disclosed by the mother when she contacted the local television station about the situation.
Although Cole did not reveal the identity of the mother or child, WND subsequently learned their identities from KOVR-TV reporter George Franco, but has opted not to disclose the names to protect the child's privacy.
Hagelin reported the other side of the story during her appearance on CNN yesterday.
"By air time Wednesday afternoon, I had secured two interviews with pastor Cole from my car phone," she said. "His greatest concern and reluctance to speak came from his desire to protect the mother and her daughter." Given that only part of the story had become national news, she added, Cole thought it important provide the rest of the story.
Cole explained that recently school officials had become aware that the mother in question works as a part-time strip-teaser dancer at a local club. Since her occupation is in violation of an agreement with and commitment to the school philosophy that parents must sign before the children are admitted to school, school officials, including Cole met the mother.
Not wanting to divulge the personal and confidential details of the conversation with the mother, Cole only briefly outlined the details of the offer officials had made the mother -- which had been left out of previous news stories.
"The school offered to waive the last month's tuition for the student so the young girl could remain in school to the end of the year if the mother would quit her job as a strip-tease dancer. They also offered to support the mother and walk 'hand in hand' with her as she worked through the spiritual issues involved and sought to better her life," said Hagelin. "The pastor believed that the meeting had been well-received by the mother, but the next thing he knew he was getting calls from the local media. I found Pastor Cole to be clearly upset that his efforts to help a woman in a very bad situation were not successful."
As a requirement for admission, parents of prospective students must sign a "commitment" to support the philosophy of the school. That philosophy, in part, reads: "Emphasis is placed on learning about God and the truths of God's Word in relationship to man and his world; recognizing that the way to God comes through personal faith in Jesus Christ; and Christian maturity comes by application of the truths of the Bible in all areas of life." In signing the document, parents agree to maintain a "partnership" with the school "regarding the standards and criteria of a Christian learning structure that involves the entire family."
"Although school officials see the mother's job as a stripper as a clear violation of her signed commitment, automatic termination of the relationship was not an option for them," said Hagelin. "The pastor and school attempted to help the mother better her life, and offered her both financial, spiritual and emotional support."
In Hagelin's interview with the pastor, he described how the role of the school differed somewhat from that of the church. While the church has open arms to all who wish to attend, he discussed how essential parental commitment is to the success of a school of 1,200 students that seeks to provide both high academic and spiritual standards for each and every student, noted Hagelin.
Reporter George Franco of KOVR told Hagelin that the mother has retained legal counsel and is considering filing a motion for an immediate injunction to have the child remain in school while the mother continues to work as a stripper.
Hold on there, OPH, there is more to the story.
The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. (Ezekiel 18:20)
Presumably we can generalize this to mothers and daughters as well.
Personally, when I try to think "WWJD" in this situation, I think he would allow the girl to continue going to the school. What I think he would not do is castigate the administrators of the school for not making the best choice.
I agree with your opinion of Paul, but for different reasons. It was Jesus who said he was not overturning the Law, and Paul who threw it out the window.
Huh? Remember this, from the original story?
Not wanting to divulge the personal and confidential details of the conversation with the mother, Cole only briefly outlined the details of the offer officials had made the mother -- which had been left out of previous news stories.
"The school offered to waive the last month's tuition for the student so the young girl could remain in school to the end of the year if the mother would quit her job as a strip-tease dancer. They also offered to support the mother and walk 'hand in hand' with her as she worked through the spiritual issues involved and sought to better her life," said Hagelin. "The pastor believed that the meeting had been well-received by the mother, but the next thing he knew he was getting calls from the local media. I found Pastor Cole to be clearly upset that his efforts to help a woman in a very bad situation were not successful."
As a requirement for admission, parents of prospective students must sign a "commitment" to support the philosophy of the school. That philosophy, in part, reads: "Emphasis is placed on learning about God and the truths of God's Word in relationship to man and his world; recognizing that the way to God comes through personal faith in Jesus Christ; and Christian maturity comes by application of the truths of the Bible in all areas of life." In signing the document, parents agree to maintain a "partnership" with the school "regarding the standards and criteria of a Christian learning structure that involves the entire family."
"Although school officials see the mother's job as a stripper as a clear violation of her signed commitment, automatic termination of the relationship was not an option for them," said Hagelin. "The pastor and school attempted to help the mother better her life, and offered her both financial, spiritual and emotional support."
Been there. Done that. Great way to lose weight, when there's not enough food to go around, so you don't eat for a week in order to ensure your kids have enough.
"It's one thing to tell people how to live their lives, and another to be in their position and have to make the decisions that they've made."
Hear, hear.
...something you have obviously not done. As I said earlier, you don't know that you don't know. Your conception of "logic" is tenuous at best.
Figures...
the logic that I presented makes perfect sense
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Direct orthogonality to previous statement... (DAMN I crack myself up!)
NO I'm not actually going to make a serious rebuttal unless you syn-op-size that atrocity of a mangled paragraph above... You can feel sorry for me if you like, but I cain't understand a damn thing you wrote up there, dude. Something about Song of Solomon. And I'm probly more edumacated than YOU are if anybody wants to know.
/obligatory salutatory atomic wedgie ("Welcome newbie! Pull them pants back up now, we don't need t' see that...")
Besides, I thought you favored public school. Now it's a punishment for a child to go to public school?
BTW, your posts over the past months/years that have anything to do with Christianity make it abundantly clear you have a mad-on about it.. Protest all you want; what I wrote is accurate.
Wouldnt you say that public schools are more destructive to the family and our country than a stripper mom?
I encourage you to go read the off-topic forum of any online game board that your kids could be playing and come back and tell me that public schools arent destroying this country.
There's no information in the SacBee story about where the rumors got started. However, I would like to point out that according to the information we have, no one from the school or any of the other parents went to the strip club itself. I do wonder what pictures they have on their Web site, though...
Silvas, who is single, said school administrators telephoned her last week and told her that in response to persistent rumors, a parent went to the strip club's Web site, downloaded pictures of Silvas and brought them to school staff. Silvas told them she does dance at the all-nude bar, which doesn't serve alcohol, and subsequently met with Cole.
If the stripper's daughter gets to stay at the school and she grows up to want to be a stripper, I wonder if the stripper will sue the school for not succeeding at instilling Christian values in her child.
Aw piffle. I can't write well enough to condescend with spoon.
That is a great line though.
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