Pregnant student banned from grad
Maryland Christian school says teen is being disciplined ‘because she was immoral’
A small Christian school in western Maryland is not backing down from its decision to ban a pregnant Grade 12 student from attending graduation next week.
Despite a public outcry and growing pressure from national antiabortion groups to reconsider, Heritage Academy in Hagerstown, Md., says that Grade 12 student Maddi Runkles broke the school’s rules by engaging in intimate sexual activity.
In a letter to parents Tuesday evening, school principal David Hobbs said that Runkles is being disciplined, “not because she is pregnant but because she was immoral . . . The best way to love her right now is to hold her accountable for her morality that began this situation.”
Runkles, 18, had a 4.0 GPA and has attended the school since 2009. She found out she was pregnant in January and informed the school, where her father was then a board member, in February. Initially the school told Runkles that she would be suspended and removed from her role as student council president and would have to finish the rest of the school year at home.
After the family appealed, Heritage said it would allow Runkles to finish the school year with her 14 classmates but she would not be able to walk with the other seniors to receive her diploma at graduation. The family believes that the decision is unfair and that she is being punished more harshly than others who have broken the rules.
“It’s because I’m pregnant and you can see the results of my mistake,” Runkles said Wednesday. “There have been kids who have broken the student code and they could have hurt people or even gone to jail and they only received an in-school suspension and they’re allowed to walk this year.”
The baby’s father is out of high school and did not attend Heritage.
To Hobbs, a longtime educator completing his first year as the school’s principal, the decision to not allow Runkles to take part in graduation resulted from her actions. He thinks she needs to be held responsible and believes the penalty will be instructive to other students.
“The breach of a standard of abstinence is a grievous choice,” he said in an interview. “Maddi made a grievous choice. We do believe in forgiveness, but forgiveness does not mean there’s no accountability.”
Hobbs said Heritage, which opened in 1969 and has 175 students from pre-kindergarten through Grade 12, emphasizes abstinence and tells students to “maintain their purity until their wedding night.”
But while the school reaffirmed its decision, anti-abortion groups have rallied to support Runkles. They argue that by singling out a pregnant student, the school is making it more likely that young women will choose abortion rather than suffer embarrassment and punishment.
“It’s a bad decision,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life. “I was horrified when I learned that they wouldn’t let her walk at graduation. Usually when a woman is facing an unwanted pregnancy, especially a young woman, there is a sense of shame that comes into play and can have an impact on her decision and often does.”
Mancini said that while she respects the school’s code of conduct she worries about what the next pregnant student will do.
“What she needs is support, and what the school is doing is really the opposite of that,” she said.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, also criticized the school. “By banning her and her alone, the administration and board collectively decided to make a public example of one student and has either intentionally or unintentionally communicated to the school community that pregnancy (not simply premarital sex) is a shame and should not be observed within our school community,” she said in a statement.
Runkles, who has been accepted to Bob Jones University, a Christian school in South Carolina, doesn’t believe Heritage will change its mind about letting her walk at graduation on June 2, but she said that if it does, she will take part.
“I would love to attend because my best friends will be there and I want to share that with them,” she said.
Still, Runkles isn’t holding her breath waiting for the school to reconsider. And she has other things on her mind. Her baby boy is due Sept. 4.