Celebrating your birthday with your family and friends means you get to catch up with everyone and just take a break from the routine. For the 15-year-old girl, her birthday meant having a fun dinner with her family and friends, eating and blowing the candles when the cake arrives. But what this girl experienced after her birthday was quite unexpected.
Little did she know the school would reach out with nothing less than an expulsion letter. What was wrong?
For Kimberly Alford, the night was memorable, as all of her daughter’s birthday celebrations. It was after all, a day she celebrated for 15 years together with her husband and her daughter.
But she had no idea that the photo of her daughter blowing out candles on the cake would cause such a mess!
In an interview with TODAY Parents, Alford recalls that her daughter Kayla Kenney “looked so happy,” and that she “just wanted to share that.” But there was a detail she hadn’t taken into consideration.
Together with friends and the rest of the family, Kimberly took Kayla to celebrate her 15th birthday.
They ate at a local restaurant and as cake was brought on the table, everyone got ready to immortalize the moment…
As Kayla was getting ready to blow out the candles, her mom snapped the photo that would catch the attention of school officials.
“I took her picture of her blowing out her candles and I posted that on my Facebook page,” told Kimberly to WAVE3.
The family never thought more about this photo. It was just Kayla being happy and ready to enjoy a slice of cake.
But days after her mom posted the photo, the Head of School at the private Christian school Whitefield Academy contacted the family through an e-mail. What was happening?
First, as Kimberly saw the e-mail in her inbox, she thought maybe her teen daughter got in trouble at school. But she had no idea it was actually her photo that got her own daughter in trouble!
Here’s what the e-mail said…
Alford told WAV3 that “it was an email expelling Kayla from Whitefield immediately due to a post on social media.” At first, the mom thought Kayla posted something inappropriate online.
But it turned out she didn’t!
The e-mail said that the photo they regarded as inappropriate demonstrated “a posture of morality and cultural acceptance contrary to that of Whitefield Academy's beliefs.” It seems that the rainbow cake and rainbow sweater were at fault here!
The mom told reporters that her daughter had no hidden agenda behind that photo and that she was just celebrating her birthday. “It was a happy moment. We were celebrating her 15th birthday.
The day God gave me her. Not supporting any sexuality or anything like that,” said Alford.
Alford explained that her daughter “loves to laugh and dance and that's just her.
There was nothing intended by that and even when I went back and got the receipt from the bakery, it didn't say anything about representation, it just said assorted colors.” But that’s not the end of Kayla’s story…
According to the school, Kayla’s display was in violation of her school’s code of conduct, which states that the students’ behavior at Whitefield Academy - even while off-campus - must be in line with the school’s beliefs.
Kayla has had several “lifestyle violations” in the last two years, added the email…
“I feel judged, she feels judged, just very devastating for us,” Alford said, adding that “we teach our kids what would Jesus do, What would he do here?” So, what happened after the private school sent the email?
Kayla and her family tried to contact the school administrators and talk. The tuition costs $7,800 a year, and Kayla was a freshman.
However, the school listed her withdrawal as voluntary so that she won’t get a bad school record, but that meant Kayla had to find a different school. But here’s where things are a bit odd…
Bruce Jacobson, the academy’s head of school reached out to NY post and stated that “inaccurate media reports are circling stating that the student in question was expelled from our school solely for a social media post.” What was left out of this story?
“In fact, she has unfortunately violated our student code of conduct numerous times over the past two years,” said Jacobson, explaining that their “code of conduct is on [par] with other private Christian schools in our area.”
The mom explained that “I ordered the cake, she didn’t,” so why should her daughter suffer? The explanation wasn’t enough to keep Kayla at the private school, though.
The school’s email said that “In the fall, we met with the student to give her a final chance to begin to adhere to our code of conduct.” But some details later surface about Kayla…
The mom recalls her emotional conversation with the head of the school: "He told me, 'Kim, the sweater, the cake, it just kind of represents gay pride … when you saw the cake you should have refused it.'"
In a Today interview, Alford admitted that her teen girl had some issues at the school. She said Kayla had once cut lunch and the second time she was caught with a vape.
However, she insisted that since their meeting in October with the school, her daughter had been in the right track.
“Kayla is no angel. But she was really trying to clean up her behavior. Her grades went up and she’s been doing so well,” Alford said in the interview with TODAY Parents.
“I want justice for my daughter. This is not how God treats people.” Another report explains why Kayla intentionally wore that sweater on her birthday…
In an investigation did by senior editor Rod Dreher for The American Conservative magazine, we learn that Kayla had posted some rather quirky photos on her Instagram account, including one where she was “dressed as a male to take a female to another school’s dance.” Let’s see where this is going.
Dreher had used photos of Kayla from her Instagram account but he then removed them “out of possible copyright concerns.” However, he inserted the captions from those photos!
Here’s what they said.
Maybe Kayla was sharing too many photos online.
Considering the rules imposed by her school, maybe it was a bad idea… Some captions from her photos are: “ME COMING OUT,” “ME FINALLY GETTING A GF,” and Dreher said there was another photo of her “throwing her Bible in the dryer.” Then, he found a post from Kayla’s father and things get weird…
The editor wrote that he had a screenshot of the “now-deleted Facebook post from Kayla Kenney’s father Mark in which he outs his daughter in a profane rant against the school and church. I say “outs” his daughter, meaning that he confirms what she did on Instagram: announced that she’s gay.
He’s defending her.”
“It further undermines the idea that the rainbows in the photo were just random. This kid and her mom were, in my opinion, clearly trying to provoke the school,” said the editor.
He then added that this is what the dad wrote on Facebook: “My daughter got expelled from her church for being ‘gay’ and that ‘years ago the gay community adopted the rainbow flag as their own. The school realized that s**t.” But that’s not all!
Kayla’s parents decided to sue not only the school “for breach of contract, emotional distress and defamation,” but also the magazine’s senior editor for defamation.
Here’s what the complaint said.
“[Kayla] is a child who has been harassed and mistreated by a school that her parents paid and trusted to keep her safe.
[Kayla] is a child who, after struggling to accept her own sexuality, has been forced to abruptly confront her identity.”
However, since the story about Kayla went viral, Alford said she and her daughter had a lot of support from people all over the country. Private schools offered to waive her tuition.
Even Ellen Jovin, of the Grammar Table, reached out and told the mom that she’d offer Kayla free tutoring!
“It made me feel sad for Kayla that she was not experiencing that level of inclusion that I’ve felt everywhere I’ve gone all of the country, and so I just wanted to make sure she knew that people have her back,” Jovin said to WAV3.
Now Kayla is starting a new life at Presentation Academy and the family couldn’t be happier! “I just hope that this does not change people’s opinion of who god is.
I don’t want my daughter to be under such scrutiny or judgement,” said Alford.