Posted by
Playful Walrus on Tuesday, October 02, 2007 12:34:50 PM
Seema Mehta of the
Los Angeles Times reports that certain actions that take place in the open in PUBLIC schools are public. Imagine that!
Garden Grove school officials did not violate the rights of a lesbian high school student when they disciplined her for kissing and groping her girlfriend on campus or when they disclosed her sexual orientation to her mother, a federal judge has ruled.
The ruling, which came almost 10 months after the trial ended, found that Charlene Nguon was treated no differently from straight students.
Charlene Nguon? Is Charlene Nguon a lesbian? Shhhh… don’t tell anyone. She wanted to keep that so private that after she made out in a public place with another girl, she filed a lawsuit.
Shhhhh.
Walsh said the district planned to file a motion with the court this month seeking repayment of nearly $400,000 in legal fees from the plaintiffs.
"The judge sends a pretty clear message: They had their day in court and they couldn't prove any of their claims," he said.
Nguon's attorneys vowed to appeal.
"There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that their despicable treatment of her was totally caused by their dislike of her sexual orientation," attorney Dan Stormer said.
Uh, no – not when any other student would be treated the same. And since when is stopping a make-out session in a public school and telling the guardian what was going on "despicable"?
In his ruling, Selna wrote that heterosexual couples also were disciplined for inappropriate public displays of affection, and that Nguon was not singled out. He did find that Wolf outed Nguon to her mother, which normally would be prohibited, but ruled it was acceptable because Wolf was explaining why Nguon was being punished, as required by the state's education code.
Nguon and her attorneys said the bright spot in the ruling was that Selna maintained that school officials do not typically have a right to disclose a student's sexual orientation.
"Even though we did lose the case, we all tried our best, and it wasn't all for naught," said Nguon, a second-year student at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. "Something good did come out of it."
So why are school officials supposed to conspire to hide information from parents who have a legal responsibility for their children?
Parents are not just paychecks.Despite ruling against Nguon, Selna showed sympathy for her.
"There is no doubt that Charlene's junior and senior years were very difficult times for her, and that dealing with her sexuality and her relationship . . . took a heavy emotional and psychological toll.
"The self-imposed scars on Charlene's arm which she revealed at trial were very real; the fact that she considered suicide her senior year was very real," he wrote.
And why does anyone assume that her self-destructive behaviors are a result of her mother finding out what she was doing in a public place? Is it possible that her self-destructive behaviors are in line with her public display of sexuality? Either way, it is sad. I hope she finds a healthy set of behaviors.
Finally- where is this girl’s father???