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Honesty is a virtue. Unless you're a lesbian student at The Master's School, a K-12 Christian school in West Simsbury, Conn.
Rachel Aviles was a popular kid who excelled in academics, sports, and extracurriculars. And even though she isn't a Christian, she says she respected the school's faith. Unfortunately, Aviles wasn't able to attend what would have been her senior year because of circumstances resulting from an incident last spring.
The Hartford Courant reports that on a class trip, Aviles and several students pretended to be married, holding hands and making "wifey" phone calls to each other.
"Looking back, it was kind of stupid," Aviles says. "But it was harmless."
After the school learned of the innocent event, the students were called in and asked about their sexual orientation. When asked, Aviles admitted to administrators what her friends already knew: that she is a lesbian.
Aviles says she was asked to leave the school to avoid being expelled.
While the school's headmaster, Jon Holley, declined to discuss Aviles because of privacy concerns, the teen's former coach, Heather Lodovico, said she phoned administrators to see if they would reverse the decision. The answer was no.
"She's a fantastic kid," said 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?'
Read the full story here.
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