SCHOOL THROWS OUT CHILDREN OF LESBIAN PARENTS

A Catholic school in the US will not allow two young children to re-enrol next year after it learned that the students’ parents are lesbians.

Staff at the Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Boulder, Colorado were ordered by the Denver Archdiocese to refuse to enrol the children in the coming year.

One child is currently in its pre-school and will not be allowed to enrol in kindergarten, while the older child is already in kindergarten but will not be allowed to enrol in first grade.

“Homosexual couples living together as a couple are in disaccord with Catholic teaching,” said the Archdiocese in a statement sent to 9NEWS.

“No person shall be admitted as a student in any Catholic school unless that person and his/her parent(s) subscribe to the school’s philosophy and agree to abide by the educational policies and regulations of the school and Archdiocese,” he said.

According to local media reports, many of the school’s staff members are opposed to the Archdiocese’s decision.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) said that it was outraged by the news. “These actions by the Denver Archdiocese harm the student by taking the child away from friends, teachers and community,” said Jarrett Barrios, GLAAD’s President.

“It’s deeply troubling to see any school remove a child from their educational program simply as the means of rejecting that child’s parents.”

Around 30 people have protested against the Archdiocese’s decision outside the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church while a group of ‘progressive Catholics’ took out a full page advert in Sunday’s Denver Post and Boulder Daily Camera expressing their opposition to the treatment of the children.

“It’s hurtful to see the Catholic Church rejecting gay people. But rejecting children because their parents are gay? That hurt can last a lifetime,” reads the advert.

It continues: “As Catholics, it is deeply hurtful to see the Archdiocese of Denver forcibly remove children from their educational programs to send a message of rejection and exclusion to those children’s parents. Lesbian and gay people are part of our families and part of the church. To see their children hurt in this way fills our hearts with grief, and it tears at the very fabric of the community.”