Story at a glance:
- A coach at a Christian school was allegedly forced to resign because of his sexuality.
- The school claims that Tonga misrepresented their stance, wishing him well on his future endeavors.
- An unnamed transgender student said school administrators told him that his identity was not valid at school.
On Tuesday, 30 students at a Colorado high school walked out of class in support of a coach who was allegedly forced to resign because of his sexuality.
Inoke Tonga, the former coach for Valor Christian High School’s junior varsity girl’s volleyball team, told CBS 4 Denver that “[the school’s] terms were renounce being gay or be released as a coach fully.”
On Instagram, Tonga said the school’s administration told him, “We can’t just have you hanging around the kids if you identify that way.”
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The school claimed that Tonga misrepresented their stance and wished him well on his future endeavors.
“Valor requires its staff, faculty and volunteer leaders — those who represent the Valor community and guide the spiritual development of our students — to agree with Valor’s Christian beliefs set forth in our Statement of Beliefs and in other policies and to live in accordance with such beliefs,” said the high school in a statement to The Colorado Sun.
Students at the protest were outraged and had a few things to say about coach Inoke’s termination.
“Reading the statements from Coach Inoke broke my heart to hear that they called him a danger to the school,” Lucy Sarkissian, a Valor student, told the local news outlet. “For every queer teen sitting at this school right now, to hear that they are a danger, breaks their heart.”
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Sarkissian, 16, organized Tuesday’s walkout and wants the school to have more inclusive policies.
“There’s some concrete changes we would like to see made, and number one is going to be not firing teachers based off of their sexuality,” she told CBS4. “Additionally, we would like to see that students are able to be more open about their sexuality without fear of being reprimanded by the deans.”
An unnamed trans student at the protest told the local news outlet that school administrators told him that his identity would not be respected at school.
“They told me that I couldn’t present as male here, which is my preferred gender identity, they pulled me into the dean’s office and said, if you want to stay here, you have to present as female, or you can leave the school,” said the sophomore at the school. “It’s just so wrong.”
“We see the signs that say ‘love thy neighbor,’” Sarkissian said. “If we’re truly called to love thy neighbor, that means love your gay neighbor, love your trans neighbor, love your queer neighbor, and this is not loving thy neighbor.”
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