A Colorado high school erupted in student protests this week after the resignation of a popular volleyball coach. The coach in question has publicly claimed he was forced to resign because he’s gay.
Inoke Tonga claimed administrators at Valor Christian High in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, pressured him into resigning after learning about his sexual orientation. Tonga has said in the press that the school warned him if he continued to live as an openly gay man, he could not live as a “child of God” and would therefore have to see a different employer.
Related: This Texas athlete came out to his high school, then started a gay-straight alliance
In an odd move, Valor Christian appeared to corroborate Tonga’s account, writing in a statement:
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In connection with his employment, Coach Inoke signed a statement affirming his alignment with Valor’s beliefs and community standards. Last week, Valor became aware of a Facebook posting by Coach Inoke that suggested he may not support Valor’s beliefs pertaining to sexuality and marriage. Valor’s campus pastor and athletic director initiated a conversation with Coach Inoke to explore this matter further. Following this discussion, Coach Inoke provided a statement to Valor in which he concluded that he does not support Valor’s beliefs, and he requested a separation from Valor. Based on this conclusion, Valor agrees that a separation is appropriate.
Now, students are voicing their objections.
Fox affiliate KVDR reports that students at Valor High have staged a walk-out in support of Inoke.
“When Coach Inoke and Coach Benner’s [another coach, allegedly pressured to resign for being gay] stories came out in the past three days, my heart broke for both of them and it broke for every queer teen at this school,” Valor High junior Lucy Sarkissian told reporters.
“This is about an end to all of those discriminatory policies because we have the light on us right now because you guys are here, alumni are here, we’re all here. The whole community is watching right now. And we’re in a rare instance where we can truly make a change to their policies,” she added.
Valor alumni also joined in the protests.
”Discrimination against the LGBT community is not something that’s new for Valor, it’s something that’s baked into the foundation when the school was opened,” said Valor graduate Cole Watson. “I hope they hear this message from their current students, I hope they hear the messages shared on social media from past LGBT students about the discrimination and psychological abuse they received at this school. I hope they hear it, I hope they are willing to change. But every time Valor has been confronted in the past with the option to change, they’ve turned it down.”
For Inoke Tonga, the protest affirms his love of his students.
“For me they are the reason why [I teach],” Tonga told KVDR. “They are the reason people are speaking out.”
In light of the protests, Valor High administrators requested a police presence at the school. The school also released a statement ordering students participating in the protest not to return to class on Tuesday, and threatening them with “unexcused absence” status. Inoke, meanwhile, has said he would return to the position if offered, so long as the school accepts him as both a gay man and a Christian.
Kangol2
I’m glad current students and alums are protesting this coach’s ouster. Yes, it is a private, Christian school, so they have the right to set whatever they believe are appropriate standards for their employees, and yes, he did sign a statement affirming that he would abide by their warped interpretation of the Bible. At the same time, this appears to be outright discrimination based on his sexual orientation. The school is hiding behind the Bible and Christianity, but nowhere in the Four Gospels does Jesus Christ ever speak out about homosexuality or same-sexual behavior, which would have been known in the era in which Christ lived. The notion that he could not live as an openly gay man while also being a “child of God” is both wrong and counter to the very Christian model these homophobes claim to espouse.
Chrisk
They won’t change but a new generation doesn’t care about these issues and sees through their hypocrisy. That’s the change.
linedrive
Man, I hope you’re right about the last part. It seems that you are, and I am so glad to see younger generations standing up to hate and hypocrisy. Does my heart good.
LAtvGuy
Growing up, I was led to believe Christians were good people. Now they seem to come off as the villains.
SDR94103
there’s a big difference between repuglican christians and classic christians.
Iona Lexiss
Likewise True Christians vs. Fake Christians. And, just for the record, the true Christians don’t advertise their Christianity, they show who they are by their actions. As soon as you see/here/experience people “announcing” they are Christian, or “God’-fearing, or whatever it is, you know it’s just a repeat of Elaine Beness’s orgasms with Jerry Seinfeld…FAKE, FAKE, FAKE.
Mack
They’re not “Christians”, they’re “Christians in name only”. They listen to the bigot/racist on Sunday who tells them how to live and they follow their interpretation of the Bible-however wrong it is.
wikidBSTN
Don’t lump all Christians together. There are many good Christians who are publicly on our side – that includes many Roman Catholics.
There are one BILLION Roman Catholics – do you really think they all follow the conservative hierarchy?? LOL – not by a long shot.
Those who use religion – any religion – to foster hate and bigotry are the enemies of God – not God’s followers.
fur_hunter
……. Due to Separation of church and state, religious institutions and affiliated organizations are not held to the laws and rulings of the government. Religions have ALWAYS been the main source of HATE and Discrimination in the world. One reason so many are turning away from them. They ALL have lost their founding beliefs and twisted a good thing into a crock of S HIT. It’s SAD as well as PATHETIC.
Iona Lexiss
Ego, Control, Fear…and so on
Gadfeal
First of all, judicially, any entity has to comply with Federal and local laws, with the Federal over-riding the local, if there is a different interpretation. Otherwise, every business or educational system could claim exemption of societal, legal systems for the most outdated bit of pre-Industrial Age “belief systems”.
I would go one step further, to absolutely make ANY school that receives Federal funds to implicitly render null and void, decided by a simple procedure, any tenet or clause that it may draft.
Some countries go even further (i.e. most EU nations), where any educational institute that benefits from State funds MUST be non-denominational. The point of “education” is to endow children with the intellectual tools to become independent adults; “religious instruction” is INDOCTRINATION of minors when they can’t even be capable of legal independence of thought!
Unfortunately, our 250 year old Constitution is obsolete, and the provisions to fundamentally update it are so onerous, that it would be almost impossible to adapt.
KerryB
This is not a school, it is an indoctrination center. These centers have been closing minds since religion was dreamed up as a method by those in power to force others to do their bidding and take their money.
AZ71
Does this school get any money from the state like most charter schools do? If they do…they dont have a right to fire him as its public money and there is a separation of church and state. If they do get money, that should be pulled immediately. I’m sick of all these charter schools taking public money from taxes and then somehow have the right to impose ridiculous rules that are archaic.
GayEGO
Another stupid church school action, the coach did nothing wrong. Being gay is part of who we are and unlike the old days, science has verified that we are part of normal civilization, not sex abusers like Mike Gaetz, Trump, etc.
Goforit
The “school” ordered the protesting students not to return to school on Tuesday and threatened them with “unexcused absence”. Well there is religious logic at it’s finest. Secondly, I am more of a Cristian than any of these so-called evangelicals. And I am an atheist.
Mack
The LGBTQ teachers have got to stop working for so-called Christian schools. Why give them the benefit of a good teacher? All they’re going to do is when they find out that you’re LGBTQ, they’ll fire you and that will go on your record. And you can bet when you’re “investigated” for a new job in the teaching field, they won’t give you “glowing” recommendations.
Cam
How about the religious schools should stop being bigoted?
Fahd
I can’t imagine that volleyball coach at a Christian school is a well-paid or even full-time job, so the loss is not overwhelming, but I still think Coach Tonga deserves a thank you for not staying closeted nor slinking away – he probably didn’t think signing the statement meant he agreed he couldn’t/shouldn’t be the person who he actually is. He’s a catalyst for change.
I’m glad the students are protesting, even taking the chance that the “unexcused absence” might go on their “permanent record”. A change that comes from within will be most profound.
Seth
Suck the religious teat and suffer the religious persecution.
Openminded
Yeah, I think Liberty College has this same ideology. Maybe this coach needs to start looking into what the Principal of this school does in his spare time.
Essie
Why would a gay person even want to work at a so-called Christian school? It can’t pay much and the public school system must pay better. I know the students probably have to go there because their parents insist on it but, if I were in high school, I would rather go to a public school than fester in the medieval atmosphere of a religious school. I would act up so badly that they would expel me and never let me back in and my parents wouldn’t have a choice. These children do sound like they care about what’s happening, though, so there might be some hope for this particular school.
Cam
Why are the bigoted schools allowed to discriminate against state law would be a better question
Terrycloth
Refuse to attend this school .I hope they do in large numbers too..there are other schools…tell your parents we’ve all rather not attend a bigoted homophobic school.anymore…
cuteguy
The younger generation don’t care about LGBT, in fact they support us. That’s why Faux News skews older. Older white and hopefully soon dead. If age won’t get them, hopefully covid will. The GQP are against vaccines and for once I agree with them. No vaccines for the GQP