Christian school pays $10,000 to student punished after coming out

A Tennessee Christian school has agreed to pay a former student $10,000 and remove a disciplinary mark from her record after suspending her and barring her from graduation when she came out as gay on social media.

A final judgment entered Monday resolved the lawsuit brought by Morgan Armstrong, who was a senior at Tennessee Christian Preparatory School near Chattanooga at the time of the incident. Under the settlement, the private school will pay Armstrong $10,000 and formally rescind her suspension, as The Hill reports.

In April 2025, then-18-year-old Armstrong publicly announced her same-sex relationship in an Instagram post showing her holding hands and kissing her girlfriend, with the caption, “cats outta the bag.” According to the complaint, school leaders responded within a week by suspending her and excluding her from all school activities, including her upcoming graduation ceremony. Armstrong alleged that administrators threatened to withhold her diploma and harm her reputation with colleges if any “online slander” about the school appeared.

The school denied discriminating against Armstrong on the basis of sexual orientation and asserted that its actions related to alleged academic and attendance issues, excessive tardiness, and unpaid financial obligations under its enrollment agreement. In a statement to ABC affiliate WTVC, Tennessee Christian Preparatory School said: “Tennessee Christian and the Armstrong family disagree regarding the extent to which Morgan Armstrong violated school policies. Both parties acknowledge that this disagreement remains unresolved and have mutually agreed to move forward. No further comments will be made regarding this matter.”

Armstrong’s attorney, Daniel Horwitz, framed the case as an important step for LGBTQ+ students’ rights. “School is a place where every student is entitled to feel welcome, accepted, and supported,” he said in a statement to PEOPLE. “It is not a place where any administrator should feel comfortable disciplining or threatening kids for being gay. We were proud to represent Morgan and her family in this righteous lawsuit, and we are thrilled to have prevailed on their behalf. We hope Morgan’s bravery will inspire others to stand up for themselves the way that she did.”

Armstrong has consistently defended her decision to share her relationship online. Speaking to The Washington Post, she said: “Everyone else gets to post their boyfriend or girlfriend. So just because I have a girlfriend and I’m a girl, why does that mean that I shouldn’t be able to?”

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