In Theory: Private Christian school denies student from walking in graduation because she’s pregnant

A pregnant 18-year-old senior at a private Christian school in Maryland was denied walking at her graduation because school officials say she was “sexually immoral,” BuzzFeed News reports.

Maddie Runkles finished her senior year at Heritage Academy in Hagerstown with a 4.0 grade-point average. She was president of the student council, vice president of Key Club and a member of the soccer team. However, after she found out she was pregnant in January, she was removed from all leadership roles and was told she’d be expelled from school and could not be seen on campus.

While her expulsion was reduced to a two-day suspension, she was told she would not be allowed to attend her graduation.

“I didn’t break the law,” she told BuzzFeed. “I just had sex before marriage, which they see as the worst thing you can possibly do.”

In a letter posted on the school’s website, Principal David Hobbs wrote, “We love Maddie Runkles. The best way to love her right now is to hold her accountable for her immorality that began this situation.”

Runkles’ father had served as school board president but has resigned because of how his daughter was treated. Her parents also pulled her and her brother out of the school.

Runkles remains devout and opposes abortion but acknowledged her experience has questioned that.

“I was taught that abortion is wrong , and I do agree with that. I never thought that if I was ever in a situation like this that I would ever consider abortion, but I did,” she said. “And that was all out of fear because I see how Christians treat people when they make a mistake.”

Q. What do you think of the school’s decision and rationale? Do you think school officials should stand firm or reconsider their decision to bar Runkles?

I believe it was wrong for the school to deny Maddie Runkles the privilege of walking at her graduation. In the end, she had not been expelled. She earned her diploma. In fact, she earned it with honors.

Principal Hobbs remarked that it was necessary to “hold her accountable for her immorality.” But God already has. She will need to be reconciled to him for her sin of fornication. If she confesses to him and claims the blood of Christ as the payment for her sin, then she will be fully forgiven. If she doesn’t, God alone will judge her.

And she is already bearing the practical consequences of premarital sex, one of which is an unexpected and possibly unwanted pregnancy. But, to her credit, she did not terminate the pregnancy, as she could have before anyone else knew about it. Showing mercy and compassion to Runkles is not a compromise with sin. It is the appropriate response in the love of Christ.

Pastor Jon Barta

Burbank

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Question: If a male student from Heritage Academy had impregnated a girl who was not a student at the school, would he have been banned from graduation?

Answer: Not likely.

The shaming of Maddie Runkles is the result of the double standard that holds girls and women more responsible for sexual morality than boys and men. In this situation a young woman became pregnant, chose to carry and give birth to the child in accord with her own beliefs and is being punished for her decision. Instead of loving and caring for Runkles, Heritage Academy chose to make an example of her as a warning to other students who might do the same thing.

I wonder what kind of sex education is provided to the students who attend the tiny fundamentalist Heritage Academy. Are the students taught about contraception and personal responsibility? Or are they subjected to ignorance-only admonitions about abstinence? In the case of Runkles, by all accounts a star student, an honest and open discussion of contraception may have spared her from becoming a single mother.

Pretending that premarital sex is the exception rather than the experience and practice of most young Americans, even those who come from faith traditions that preach against it, is just a denial of reality. Providing the care and support for young people so as to empower them to make healthy choices about sexuality so they can respect themselves as well as others should be the goal of parents and schools. Apparently it is more important to the leaders of Heritage Academy to shame a talented young woman than to confront the consequences of their own so-called “pro-life” ideology.

David L. Hostetter, Ph.D.

President, Unitarian Universalist Church of the Verdugo Hills

La Crescenta

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Once upon a time, pregnant girls in public high schools would also have been denied ceremonial privilege, but today there are few moral codes to uphold, which is why public schools are rife with fornication and its tragic aftermath: STDs and abortion. Parochial schools exist to uphold biblical morals and to promote God’s commands; ergo, premarital sexual intercourse is sinful behavior which can’t simply be ignored. While I’m amazed that a girl with straight As had any time for the extracurricular activity that caused her predicament, she knew going in that Heritage upholds godly morals, not worldly ones. Sure, this isn’t the unpardonable sin, but neither is it exemplary of one graduating from a Christian institution whose mores she signed off on.

This isn’t dissimilar to a winning athlete who shows great promise, only to be discovered having taken illegal enhancement drugs. Generally such a one would be suspended and kept from playing in the big meet. Behavior begets consequences, as Maddie Runkles is experiencing through her unplanned pregnancy, but was this a heat-of-the-moment moral failure, or her general lifestyle? Was she living a deception, pretending to be a Christian just to get a more quality education? One wonders, especially after her remark about rethinking abortion when penalized for her misbehavior. Really? Kill your unborn child because you aren’t allowed to throw your tasseled hat in the air on graduation day? What true Christian thinks like that? And she did “break the law” though not the world’s. It was God’s. Scripture says, “No sexually immoral people … will inherit God’s kingdom” (1Corinthians 6:9-10 HCS). That isn’t to say that momentary failures in this department forfeit heaven (as we all sin somehow periodically) but remorseless, unrepentant, lifestyle practitioners of any sin are essentially saying, “I don’t want God’s way!” They reject God’s lordship over their lives, and that denies the code of all Christians everywhere.

Runkles still graduates, she’s just not allowed to parade her indiscretion. I think this is right, and I think she needs to get right. Christians will love and support her, but she needs to own the action that put us all in the difficult position of dealing with her sin.

Rev. Bryan A. Griem

Tujunga