A Christian school wanted this baseball star. Then it learned his parents are gay

There were so many reasons to attend Valley Christian.

Caleb Degala-Burnett, a recently graduated eighth grader in Union City, was looking forward to the Dublin school’s small class sizes and spending four years with his friends.

Then there was the fact that the baseball team was actively pursuing him — with good reason. 

At a recent invite-only showcase, Caleb was the fastest-throwing outfielder in the Class of 2029. The website Perfect Game rates him a “college prospect” and potential pro draft pick “with development.”

“Caleb’s name came up last night a few times and we really want him to be a part of a great school,” Valley Christian’s baseball coach told Caleb’s father Mike Degala in a March 5 text reviewed by The Standard.

Administrators at the $24,000-per-year school were also in the loop. Joe Fuca, vice executive of schools, was “all in” on the youngster “playing varsity baseball for us next year,” the coach texted Degala.

But the school’s pursuit of the outfielder ran cold in an April 13 phone call with Fuca. 

“He said, ‘You being a family of same-sex marriage doesn’t align with our Christian values,’” Degala recalled. “‘We would lose supporters, and it doesn’t align with the mission of the school.’”

Caleb was shocked. He had endured schoolyard taunts about his two dads in early grade school but never outright discrimination from an institution.

“I felt angry about it, because it really shouldn’t matter what your family is,” Caleb said. “It should matter about the student and how they are as a person.”

Valley Christian administrators — including Fuca, Executive of Schools Daren Laws, and high school Principal Larry Lopez — did not respond to requests for comment. The Standard reviewed texts, emails, and calendar invites that confirm Caleb’s family had engaged in weeks-long talks with the school about the 14-year-old attending in the fall, including discussions of financial aid and playing for the baseball team.

Caleb’s experience underscores a nagging fact: While federal law prohibits private schools from discriminating on the basis of race, color, and national origin, there’s nothing preventing them from rejecting and expelling students because of their sexuality, or their parents’.  

But the fact that Valley Christian’s rejection was legal is of little comfort for Caleb’s family.

“I’ve never, to this magnitude, experienced this type of discrimination against our family,” Degala said. “In this day and age, it’s crazy.”

Valley Christian may not be unique. When The Standard polled 10 of education website Niche’s top Bay Area Christian high schools to ask if they’d accept LGBTQ+ students and families, only one responded: Mountain View Academy, which said it would.

Among the others, Valley Christian in San Jose, which is not affiliated with the Dublin school of the same name, is the only school that explicitly prohibits homophobia in posted student handbooks, webpages, or employment policies. All prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national religion.

In contrast, every one of Niche’s top-ranked Catholic and non-religious schools bar homophobia in their policies.

Several schools — including San Francisco Christian School, The King’s Academy, Redwood Christian Schools, and Fremont Christian School — are explicit in their materials about rejecting homosexuality in general and gay marriage in particular.

“We believe that any form of sexual immorality (including adultery, fornication, homosexual behavior, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, and use of pornography) is sinful and offensive to God,” reads Redwood Christian’s handbook.

“The term ‘marriage’ has only one meaning: the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union,” reads The King’s Academy’s handbook. ”We believe that God’s command is that there be no sexual intimacy outside of, or apart from, marriage between a man and a woman.” 

Jorge Reyes Salinas, communications director at Equality California, said his organization hasn’t received any recent reports of high schools rejecting LGBTQ+ students and families.

“It’s legal on paper; it’s not morally right,” Reyes Salinas said of the fact that private schools can discriminate against LGBTQ+ families. “This is unacceptable regardless of the school’s private or religious status.”

Valley Christian is small; its high school had 109 students in 2023-24, state data shows. Its elementary and middle schools enrolled 278.

The preschool through 12th grade programs operate under Brave Church, which has locations in Dublin, San Francisco, and San Ramon. Brave is a tax-exempt organization, according to Internal Revenue Service fillings.

Caleb’s parents do not consider themselves religious.  But Caleb says he wants to explore faith — Christianity, specifically.

He wants to know what’ll happen when he dies. Will he go to heaven? Or will everything fade to black?

“I just want to learn more about it,” he said, adding that Valley Christian’s rejection is “just one little setback” in his journey to explore faith.

Master Burnett, Caleb’s father, said he wants his son to explore faith for himself. He’s just disappointed that this was one of his first encounters with Christianity.

“I don’t consider discrimination a Christian value,” said Burnett, who was raised in California’s Central Valley by Southern Baptist missionaries. 

Still, he wasn’t shocked when he learned of the school’s rejection.

“I’ve grown up with a degree of religious bigotry, so I’m accustomed to it,” Burnett said. “I call it being a ‘Sunday Christian.’ We’re all open and inclusive on Sundays, but the other 313 days of the year, we’re judgmental bigots who will hold anything and everything against you.”

After taking time to process the experience, Degala posted about it on Facebook on June 1, partially to commemorate the start of Pride Month. He wanted to “get it out there” and possibly effect change at Valley Christian.

But the family has otherwise moved on. Caleb plans to attend James Logan High School, the local public school, and his parents say they want him to go where he’ll be most happy.

At the very least, they’ll save thousands of dollars on tuition.

“It’s their loss,” said Degala.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with new information that Saint Francis High School in Mountain View does have a policy prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ+ students and families.