HAGERSTOWN, Md. — Switching your child's school is a decision that doesn't come lightly, and mothers Jennifer Dane and Megan Stratton put a lot of thought into for their 11-year-old son Brayden.
"He had a really rough year this year in public school," Megan Stratton said. "So we wanted to take him to a different school that he wasn't gonna have that.”
The different school they pursued was Grace Academy, a private Christian school in Hagerstown. It's a school Brayden wanted to attend with his friends and because he is a Christian.
Except during the interview, the vision of Brayden walking the halls faded.
“At the end of the interview, [the interviewer] asked if we had any questions for him, and we asked him, you know, how would Brayden be treated if it came out his parents were a same-sex couple," Stratton said. “So whenever I asked that he said, there's no way I could guarantee that I could keep him safe," Dane recalled.
Then they received a letter on May 8 from Grace Academy that said their son didn't get in “due to a lifestyle counter to the Biblical worldview we teach.”
“It blows everyone's minds. That they put it in writing on this piece of paper. And that was the only reason because he said he told us over and over again, I would admit you right now if I could, but because of your lifestyle,” Dane said.
That letter prompted a review by the Maryland State Department of Education, as explained in a provided statement.
"As a condition of receiving public funds through those programs, participating nonpublic schools are required to sign assurances that they will not discriminate in student admissions, retention, or expulsion, or otherwise discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity or expression," a statement from the Department of Education reads.
This case has also caught the attention of Maryland Congressman David Trone and City of Hagerstown Mayor Emily Keller who said she believes this is discrimination.
"I understand that they are a private school that can make their own rules, but these are the parents," Keller said. "And for a child to be denied an education because of something his parents have done, or do or, you know, whatever. None of it sits well with me. And I try to respect the fact that they're a private school and they're a private Christian school and they can make those decisions, but this is 2022. Families are not always straight man and woman married anymore. Families look very different now and we need to be accepting of that."
Moving forward, Dane and Stratton said they want the school to apologize to their son and the people making admissions decisions to be held responsible.
“I don’t want it to happen to anybody else," Dane said.
Since May 25, WUSA9 made multiple attempts to reach Grace Academy for comment. We have not heard back.