Texas: School sends lesbian couple mixed messages over enrolment

Director cites religion as prohibiting factor but owner would like family to apply

A lesbian couple in Texas says a Montessori school director told them her religious beliefs prevent her from allowing their son to be enrolled in the program, but a report from an ABC News affiliate says the school’s owner would like the couple to submit an application.

During a tour of the New Beginnings Montessori School in Bedford, Texas, Tracy and Dawn Keller say, they received a positive response after asking if their son, Landry, would be accepted in the school as he has two moms. But Dawn Keller says the school’s director, Shamain Webster, later called to say she couldn’t allow him to be enrolled because it would be against her religion, and “we don’t live that way.”

Webster told WFAA News 8 that the school’s owner, her father, is open to having the couple apply, but the Kellers say they’re going to find a program that will “welcome us just like everybody else.”

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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