Colorado high school volleyball coach forced to renounce his sexuality or resign

On Aug. 19, 2021, administrators at Valor Christian High School near Denver confronted the school’s volleyball coach for discussing his sexuality on Facebook. The administrators felt the coach’s comments transgressed the Christian values he had agreed to uphold prior to his employment and requested he either denounce his sexuality or resign. The coach chose to resign.

Key Players

Inoke Tonga, a gay man and advocate for LGBTQ+ people and students, was hired in 2020 to coach boys volleyball at Valor Christian High School, before also being invited to coach girls junior varsity volleyball in 2021. 

Valor Christian High School is a private secondary school located outside of Denver, “dedicated to a Christian mission,” according to its website. The fully accredited school requires all staff to commit themselves to Christian values, and touts that “faculty are dedicated Christians who are excellent, knowledgeable teachers who do not separate intellectual life from spiritual practice.”

Further Details

Before coaching the junior varsity girls volleyball practice on a Thursday afternoon, Tonga was called to meet with the campus pastor and athletic director for a “spiritual connection.” According to a Facebook post Tonga uploaded after the meeting, the administrators questioned him about his sexual identity and asked how it influenced his work.

They “grilled me about how being Gay is a ‘danger’ to the school and to the kids,” Tonga wrote.

The administrators, according to Tonga, gave him the option to “denounce being gay. … Go home and delete any posts on social media that speak about being gay … to become a child of God” or leave his position. The administrators offered to write an email to “send out and make sure that it states that you are away for personal matters, so that way when you make your decision to accept God and our help, you can come back and they don’t have to know of your spiritual battle.” 

The evening after the meeting, Tonga emailed the school administrators, reasserting his identity as a gay man and LGBTQ+ advocate. The school responded the next day by notifying the volleyball community that Tonga had elected to leave his position.

On Facebook, Tonga outlined his prayers for those who “are silently battling accepting who they are.” He expressed his encouragement to both his players and all others to “realize that the morals of the school and the beliefs of certain individuals do not get to decide if they are worthy of God’s love.”

Outcomes

Administration claims Tonga misconstrued terms of dismissal

In a statement to 4 CBS Denver, the school claimed “Tonga misrepresented many aspects of what happened.” Nonetheless, the school “wished him well in his future endeavors.” 

According to Tonga’s post on Facebook, the administration was correct in that it was his own choice to leave, but was omitting its role in forcing him to do so.

Students organize walkout to protest 

On Aug. 24, 2021, approximately 30 students walked out of classrooms during instruction to protest Tonga’s dismissal. Lucy Sarkissian, the 16-year-old Valor student  who organized the walkout, claimed that the dismissal was itself against Christian values. As she explained to 4 CBS Denver News, “We see the signs that say ‘love thy neighbor.’ If we’re truly called to love thy neighbor, that means love your gay neighbor, love your trans neighbor, love your queer neighbor, and this is not loving thy neighbor.”