A Christian student has been banned from attending graduation at her Maryland Christian private school because she is pregnant.
Maddi Runkles, 18, finds herself caught between conservative groups: pro-life advocates who laud her choice to keep her baby, and her Christian school which is punishing her for breaking the school's code on premarital sex.
Now Ms Runkles won't be able to join her fellow students at Heritage Academy's graduation ceremony next month, according to the New York Times.
Ms Runkles desribed herself as a 'a practising born-again Christian'. She learned she was pregnant in January, and said that she does not plan to marry the baby's father. She describes her baby boy as a 'blessing', and plans to raise her child with the help of her parents.
She initially tried to keep her pregnancy a secret, but soon told her parents, and later confessed in front of her school. The school's 'statement of faith' insists that 'no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of the marriage commitment between a man and a woman,' and Runkles knew she had violated the code.
Heritage Academy is a nondenominational, independent Christian private school in Hagerstown, Maryland. Ms Runkles will still earn her diploma, but her punishment is being barred from attending graduation, and being removed from her position as student council president.
'I told on myself,' she said. 'I asked for forgiveness. I asked for help.' She said many students thanked her, but also that she felt her punishment was disproportioantely harsh, and that she was still an outcast.
However, she won the support of the pro-life group Students for Life, who unsuccessfully tried to dissuade the school from its punishment.
'She made the courageous decision to choose life, and she definitely should not be shamed,' said Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins. 'There has got to be a way to treat a young woman who becomes pregnant in a graceful and loving way.'
Her parents are holding their own graduation ceremony for their daughter the day after the academy's event, on June 3.
'Some pro-life people are against the killing of unborn babies, but they won't speak out in support of the girl who chooses to keep her baby,' Ms Runkles said. 'Honestly, that makes me feel like maybe the abortion would have been better. Then they would have just forgiven me, rather than deal with this visible consequence.'
