NBC:
A 14-year-old student was expelled from a Christian school because her parents are lesbians.
Shay Clark was expelled from Ontario [California] Christian School on Thursday.
"Your family does not meet the policies of admission," Superintendent Leonard Stob wrote to Tina Clark, the girl's biological mother.
Stob wrote that school policy requires that at least one parent may not engage in practices "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian life style, such as cohabitating without marriage or in a homosexual relationship."
Shay and her parents said they won't fight the ruling.
School administrators learned of the parents' relationship this week after Shay was reprimanded for talking to the crowd during a football game.
Clark and her partner have been together 22 years and have two other daughters, ages 9 and 19.
Eh, it's a privately funded school. They don't meet the school standards, the school isn't obliged to keep the child enrolled.
Even so, it's a bad idea to expel the child for something her parents did (i.e; engaging in homosexual behavior).
But then again, why go to a Christian school in the first place if you don't meet the rules to begin with?
Eh, oh well. What's done is done.
EDIT: After reading through the news article again, I've come to the conclusion that the article is too freakin' vague. What exactly did Shay talk about at the football game (as it seems to have lead to her expulsion in some way)?
WHAT A SURPRISE.
Hey, they should expel all the kids with parents who were one-time divorcees. That'll teach those brats that they're responsible for the actions of their parents.
It'll also teach them to despise Christinality. Which is obviously what they want by pushing people away like this.
Hey, as much as I'd like to be mad about this,
It's a private Christian school, so it's completely within their rights to do this and there's not a whole lot people can do short of a costly court case.
It's privately funded, they can expel whoever they want. I went to a private school for awhile as a kid that would expel you if you got (or got someone else) pregnant or if you smoked cigarettes or drank or were thought to be showing a "non-Christian attitude". Hence I got expelled for all of the above except pregnancy. It was irritating, but I don't exactly feel like it was a major loss. I just moved on to another school and got on with my life. I fit in better at the public school anyways and I still got a decent education.
If it were a public school I'd be pissed off, but because it's private I don't really care. It's sad people aren't more openminded, but it's not exactly like there aren't a whole multitude of diff. private schools to choose from. Not all of them are affiliated with the church.
This is pathetic.
I'm glad the girl's parents didn't fight the ruling, because I wouldn' want kids of mine to go to a school like that.
It's just sick. They class lesbianism as an immoral practice, eh? Why don't they just say her parents are evil and be done with it?
First off:
I'm not the least bit surprised that something like this happened. I mean, come on, it was downright predictable. Probably wasn't the first time something like this has happened, won't be the last. I guess it must have been a slow news week. I daresay the only reason any sort of fuss has been made is cos it happened to be a Christian school that expelled on the grounds of moral ethics.
Quote:
They class lesbianism as an immoral practice, eh? Why don't they just say her parents are evil and be done with it?
Shock news! Lesbianism branded as immoral by Christians! Some even thought to call it EVIL! :O
My goodness, how many times is this going to come up? Yes, Christians (mostly) brand any sort of homosexuality as immoral. Thus, it's sin. Thus, you could call it evil, I guess, as any kind of sin (no matter how minor it may apeear) is basically inherently evil.
Heck, I daresay the only reason this has been posted is because, yet again, it brings up the whole "ZOMG teh Christianz hav a different moral standpoint WTF LOLOLOL!" issue. Except some people like to exaggerate it to make Christians look like they're stupid. Whatever.
I'd go into a lengthy explanation on that, but I only just woke up and I can't be bothered.
Anyway, looking at it in a more neutral light: yeah, she was expelled. But as everyone else said, private school, so they have a right to do that. I'd be as annoyed as the next person if it'd been a public school, but as it wasn't then there's not much can be done, meh?
~LightStrike.
It's a private school, but it seems harsh that the girl is being punished for the actions of her parents. Hypothetically the girl could have very orthodox Christian beliefs and actually disagree with her mother's relationship.
I can see a private school expelling someone because they got pregnant, or because they got caught smoking weed, or because they were making out with someone in the bushes. These are all examples of the choices they make. But this just doesn't fly -- expelling someone who has been paying them for the privelege of being there for several years simply because their parents are lesbians? That would be like me up and refusing to do business with a regular customer of several years simply because I found out his great-uncle voted for the Conservative Party. Or a women-only gym refusing to let a woman in because one of her parents is a man. Sure, any business reserves the right to refuse service, but if they wanted to, this could easily be fought as a Charter issue.
Their actions I'm not surprised with. I doubt they'd accept the girl back in, but it is a shame the daughter ends up biting the big one due to her parents' action.
~Neo
So from my understanding, the school didn't know that Shay's mother was homosexual, even though her older daughter had attended Ontario Christian schools for four years.
But the article says that school officials were confused when they found out when Tina's partner Mitzi had a different last name. Plus, according to the OCS website, they were required to sign an Article of Faith and an agreement of school association bylaws.
So from the looks of things, it seems that there was a bit of misdirection on the part of Shay's mother and her partner. Whether or not it was intentional, I don't know.
I don't see why this is a bad thing for her... that probably wasn't the right school for her to be going anyway. Now she can go to a better, more tolerant school.
In any case, several students at the private Catholic school I attend are openly homosexual, but they're not "punished." I don't know whether my school is indicative of the rule or the exception, but either way, the school's behavior isn't representative of all christian schools or christians themselves.
Ten bucks says this turns into a religious debate.
Twenty bucks says Jimro joins in.
...Wonderbat and Harley, consider yourself sigged here in a minute.
They're going to do what they want with their school. It's privately funded, you have to follow their rules. This goes more to whether we should allow privately funded institutions exemption to discrimination laws. I don't know the laws on that.
You know my personal position on it.
~Rico
So what this private school is saying, casically, is that they have the right to expell anyone they like if they're doing something immoral.
Expulsion goes on a kid's permanent record. It damages their chances of getting into other schools.
That's the trouble with privatisation - people get to do pretty much what they want.
That's the stupidest opinion I've heard on "privitazation" in awhile.
Most schools don't care about expulsion from another school unless it was for an academic or disciplinary problem.
So
Quote:
It damages their chances of getting into other schools.
Not really.
Quote:
So what this private school is saying, casically, is that they have the right to expell anyone they like if they're doing something immoral.
Yes, because as a private organization they can basically do whatever they want. I could start a private school tomarrow that said everyone HAS to have homosexual parents or else you're expelled. Since I wouldn't be using public money it'd be lawful.
Quote:
That's the trouble with privatisation - people get to do pretty much what they want.
Yeah, it really sucks when parents get to pick schools that allow them to pass on their beliefs to their children when Harley disagrees with those beliefs. 
No, it sucks that parents are forcing their children to grow up into good little mindless clones of themselves.
And don't call my opinions stupid.
Quote:
No, it sucks that parents are forcing their children to grow up into good little mindless clones of themselves.
Most parents influence their children with their own beliefs and agendas. Even if you say "I want you to make your own decision" your child is still going to know where YOU stand on most matters and YOU will still be the primary influece in structuring a child's belief system.
OFFTOPIC: All parents influence their kids. But some kids have stronger willpower than others.
Back on topic:
Untill there is a law that forbids private schools from making their own rules, this is perfectly legal.
~Rico
