School Kicks Out Teen For Being Gay

Last year, officials at The Master’s School found out that rising senior Rachel Aviles was a lesbian. So they told her to drop out.

According to the Hartford Courant, authorities at the K-12 Christian school in West Simsbury, Connecticut found out last spring that some students were playing a game where they pretended to be married. This involved phone calls and hand-holding, and basically sounds like the most innocent thing ever. But not to the Master’s administration, which decided to interrogate the students about their sexual orientation. Aviles told them she was gay — they told her to withdraw or they would expel her.

Her former coach, Heather Lodovico, says the administration decided the school “wasn’t the place for her” because “she wasn’t a Christian and […] she believed she’s gay.” But she notes that the school has no explicit policy against either non-Christians or gay students. So while some might argue that Master’s is a private school and Aviles has the freedom to go elsewhere, it certainly would have helped her to know at the outset that she wouldn’t be welcome. Of course, since young people (especially those as young as kindergarten) don’t always know their sexual orientation, Master’s might be better off being accepting of all students rather than kicking them out if, at some point in their studies, they realize they’re gay. Says Lodovico,

My reaction was: ‘Wow. Your God’s really small.’ Whether it’s a sin or not, take that out of the picture, and this is still wrong. I think God’s up there shaking His head going, ‘Really? Really?’

We’re shaking our heads too.

A Student’s Honesty Cost Her A Place At This Christian School [Hartford Courant]