What’s a closeted eighteen year-old high school senior to do when the school administration outs him to his parents, who didn’t know?

That happened to James Barnett, who until he was recently expelled for being gay, was a senior at Trinity Christian Academy in Dallas.

It all started, when a personal Web site for young gays began levying a fee for the service. Barnett concluded that paying online for participation in the site would hurt anonymity.

“You have me and 50,000 other gay teens out there who don’t want their parents to know anything is up, and a credit card statement saying XY.com Magazine would be a little obvious,” he said.

He feared it would make people less likely to use the site. “When they released this greed campaign I said this isn’t right, kids who struggle with this and need some kind of help won’t pay money.”

Being able to talk to other gay teens on-line had provided Barnett with support when he was questioning his sexuality. “The site to me meant a great deal, as it had probably saved my life,” he said. “It gave me people who were going through the same thing, and we could talk. I could finally come out of my shell. So I created a free service that would give teens an outlet; stay away from drugs, suicide, alcoholism, etc.”

So with the best of intentions Barnett, a talented web designer with his own server, started My-Boi.com. It was an instant success, and in three months, he had more than 1,500 members.

“I have personally received countless e-mails from teenagers who are experiencing what I was nine months ago, and (they) say that this site helped,” he said.

Three months later, things changed.

A snoopy fellow student at school told several heads in the administration that Barnett was gay and was running a gay-themed Web site. He was called into the office and grilled about the site and his sexual orientation.

After the discussion Barnett asked the principal repeatedly not to inform his parents. “I again emphasized and I explicitly said, ‘I am 18, I reserve the right for my parents not to know and I do not want them involved.’”

Outed by school administrators
Barnett couldn’t believe what happened next.

“The first people I see to walk in the door are my mother and my father,” he said. “This is where I bury my head in my hands and don’t really know what to do, how to respond. I, for the first time in my life, have never felt that betrayed and first time I’ve ever been speechless.”

Barnett had just been outed by the school administration. “They tell my parents I am ‘struggling with homosexuality.’ My mother broke down in tears, my dad wasn’t particularly thrilled.”

The school took six days to decide that Barnett should be expelled, citing “immoral behavior and supporting an immoral cause” as the reason.

“The reason for expulsion and the suspension is the fact that what I have done is a Class A offense. I am not given a chance to appeal
to honor council. “It’s “too sensitive’”

Before the expulsion the administration insisted that Barnett pull his site, even though it was not stored on the school server. It was suggested that if he complied, he might be reinstated. That didn’t happen. He has since put his site up on a private server, which is costing him $200 a month.

He said it’s worth it. “My site meant a great deal to me to keep up, since sites like it saved my life. I felt like it was stripped away from me and from a group of people who might not have been able to find a friend in a hard time.”

Barnett attended Trinity Christian Academy for thirteen years, his family paying around $130,000 in total tuition. He is finishing his senior year at a public high school. His Web site now has more than 1,700 members.

Since his expulsion, Barnett has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union and is waiting for a response.

Administrators at Trinity Christian Academy could not be reached for comment.

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