An 8-year-old girl has been expelled from her school in Oklahoma after telling another girl that she had a crush on her.
What We Know:
- Delanie Shelton’s daughter, Chloe, up until recently, was a 2nd-grade student at Rejoice Christian School in Owasso, Oklahoma. Last week on the playground, Chloe admitted her crush on another female student. Without hesitation, the school pulled Chloe from the playground and into the principal’s office, where she stayed for hours missing time in class, according to her mother. She also said the vice-principal told her daughter, “‘The Bible says you can only marry a man and have children with a man,” which left the young girl highly upset and wondering if God still loved her.
- In addition, the vice-principal asked Shelton how she felt about girls liking girls, to which she responded, “If we’re being honest, I think it’s okay for girls to like girls.” She told Fox 23 News that the administrator appeared “shocked and appalled” at this response. She was told that same-sex relationships were not condoned on Rejoice’s campus. Nevertheless, Shelton shared her value of raising her children, not judge with the news station. She says they are allowed to love whomever they want.
- Shortly after, the superintendent, Joel Pepin, called Shelton to inform her of the school’s decision to “end their partnership” with her family, simultaneously expelling her 5-yeard old son as well. Upon her request for the expulsions’ details, she was simply told that her beliefs were not in alignment with theirs. Shelton expressed the cluster of emotions she experienced, from anger to betrayal to sadness. She was in disbelief of the school’s actions against her children.
“They ripped my kids out of the only school they’ve ever really known, away from their teachers and friends they’ve had over the past four years over something my daughter probably doesn’t know or fully understand,” she said.
- In an attempt to process the situation and at least discuss it, she asked Pepin for a sit-down meeting, yet he refused by replying, “nothing more needed to be discussed.” Pepin avoided public commentary on the matter in a statement saying, “Due to privacy and other factors, it is the school’s policy to refrain from public comments regarding any particular student or family.”
- The Rejoice Christian School handbook states “any form of sexual immorality” such as “professing to be homosexual/bisexual” does not stand in correlation with their beliefs. The handbook also asserts that any students who do not “conform to the standards and ideals of work and life” release their privilege to attend the school. Shelton explained, “It wasn’t a relationship nor a practice, just a crush. To an 8-year-old, that could just mean that she really enjoys playing on the playground with her.” She feels that her daughter is too young to understand same-sex relationships fully, and her school made her feel ashamed. In the midst of a pandemic, the family now must find another school to transfer to.
Despite the school’s actions, Chole has received an abundance of support from people across the nation. Over 150 messages of encouragement have reached her with a guarantee that she is loved by God and them as well.
