By Hilary White
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MILLIKEN, Colorado, August 11, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A teacher at a small private school in Colorado was fired after she refused to allow a 13-year-old student to leave class during an explicit classroom discussion about sex. Haley Aochi was told she would have to stay for the class even though her parents had requested that she be excused.
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Agape Press reports that the school’s physical education teacher, Joel Chase, ignored the parents’ request, and led his class in a discussion of sexual practices including his private views on dating.
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Knowledge Quest Academy in Milliken, a small community north of Denver, dismissed Chase after Liberty Counsel sent a letter to the school on behalf of the Aochis. Liberty Counsel president, Mat Staver, said that parents have the right to have their children educated according to their religious beliefs and moral principles.
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Liberty Counsel, a pro-life and pro-family non-profit legal and lobbying organization based in Orlando, Florida, provides pro bono legal assistance in the areas of religious liberty, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family. The Counsel has seen some recent successes defending religious liberty in schools.
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The group intervened in a recent case in California in which high school valedictorian Brittany McComb had her microphone cut off when she mentioned the name of Christ in her graduation speech. In another case, just last week, Liberty Counsel intervened successfully when a Virginia school district tried to ban material announcing Bible clubs, church activities and other after-school religious events.
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Staver said that parents’ rights must be protected. “The Aochi family are certainly distressed over the fact that their parental rights were violated—but pleased with the prompt reaction of the school.”
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“And I think teachers ought to learn a lesson from this, and that is that they are not de facto parents.”
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Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Valedictorian Speech Cut off at the Name of Christ
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jun/06062202.html