8-year-old, Chloe Shelton was kicked out of Rejoice Christian School in Oklahoma last week after she told another female student she had a crush on her, her mother told CNN.
Delanie Shelton told CNN that her daughter was immediately removed from the playground and held in the principal’s office.
“Before I was even called, the vice principal told Chloe that the Bible says that women can only have children with a man,” Shelton told CNN. “(The vice principal) asked me how I feel about girls liking girls and I told her that I see no issue with it.”
She was told not to come back to the school the following day after she picked up her daughter.
The school’s Superintendent called Shelton the next day to notify her that they were “ending their partnership” with her family and that Chloe and her 5-year-old brother were no longer welcome at the school because her beliefs didn’t align with theirs.
“I was so blindsided. I was angry, hurt, betrayed, sad… so many different emotions. I just couldn’t believe it,” Shelton told CNN. “I asked him to have a sit down meeting to discuss it and process it better and he refused, saying that ‘nothing more needed to be discussed.'”
The school’s Superintendent Joel Pepin told CNN in a statement: “Due to privacy and other factors, it is the school’s policy to refrain from public comments regarding any particular student or family.”
The school’s handbook states that “any form of sexual immorality” goes against its beliefs, including “professing to be homosexual/bisexual.” If a student does not “conform to the standards and ideals of work and life” he/she will face expulsion.
“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,” Shelton said.
Chloe was upset over the expulsion. She has been crying and asking her mother if God still loves her.
