Posted on 06/18/2005 8:28:22 PM PDT by wagglebee
AUSTIN, Texas -- A 15-year-old San Marcos girl and her father have filed a federal lawsuit against her school nurse, who allegedly forced the girl to take a pregnancy test.
The lawsuit claims that nurse Dyanna Eastwood called the girl to her office and told her that a student at another school claimed he impregnated her. Eastwood insisted the girl take the test, according to the lawsuit.
The girl said she did not have sex with the boy and denied that she was pregnant. The girl's lawyer also said she was not pregnant. The suit, which was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Austin, claims the girl's privacy and constitutional rights were violated during the January event.
The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, claims Eastwood violated the girl's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure.
"I remember the incident," Eastwood said. "Is that how it went down? No, of course not."
She declined to comment further, saying she wanted to seek legal advice.
The lawsuit also names the San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District as a defendant. The district's general counsel, Juan Cruz, declined to comment, saying officials have not been served with the lawsuit.
"This whole thing is intrinsically wrong," said John Hindera, the family's Austin lawyer. "She's a 15-year-old girl that's suddenly being confronted with having sex and being pregnant."
Hindera said that Eastwood did not threaten any consequences if the girl declined to take the test, but that the girl felt she had no choice because the nurse is an authority figure.
When the girl's father asked Principal Chad Kelly about the pregnancy test, the father was handed a piece of paper citing a section of the Texas Family Code stating that a child may consent to medical treatment by a licensed physician if the child "is unmarried and pregnant and consents to hospital, medical or surgical treatment, other than abortion, related to the pregnancy."
Hindera said even if the girl agreed to take the test, that consent isn't valid under Texas law because of her age.
This is absurd!
What's absurd about it...any girl old enough to get pregnant should have some say over their health care.
The absurdity is the nurse believing she had some "right", "duty", what ever you want to call it to have this girl submit to a pregnancy test.
What if she is 11?
Is this an infinite loop?
I was wondering the same thing.
It's Groundhog Day. Heh heh heh...
Little girl won't have to worry about paying for college now.
Practicing medicine without a license? This is a diagnostic study; I would think that the nurse would need a physician's order prior to performing the test.
1. She wasn't seeking healthcare.
2. 4th Amendment violation (as stated).
3. Children are not able to sign into agreements. One must be 18 years old.
4. Clear HIPPA violation (Federal health privacy law). Big Time.
Nurse may lose her license.
In fairness, a number of people on the other thread suggested people wait to see how this plays out. They thought the nurse go short shrift when it came to fully explaining her position.
For the record, I railed on her.
I'm not sure how I pulled in the web address of this same thread, but I intended to link all of you to a prior thread.
Please excuse my error. This is the proper prior link.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1425672/posts
I am a nurse. There is no explanation she could give other than the girl requested the test that passes muster. The girls life was in no imminent danger, she signed no consent for treatment, the nurse did not have a doctor's order for the procedure, the girls' family was not notified, I can go on and on. She should lose her license and be fined $25,000 for violating HIPPA laws.
School nurses all over the country are digging into personal business of families as much as they can, and many of those school nurses are likely homosexual women. Many of them are also organizing groups for girls, with the activities of those groups organized to teach the content of so-called women's studies (university courses in man hating).
If you'll note the wording here, the nurse seems to be saying the kid's story is not accurate. That's what they keyed on in the other thread. They thought the kid probably requested the test.
I appreciate your point of view, and believe me, if you read my comments on the other thread, you'll see I agree with you.
If this is the best she could do, then it happened just the way it was reported. I'm not flaming at you, Doughty, just at this poor excuse for a professional.
Girl, 15, sues school nurse over prenancy test
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1425672/posts
I did a search and used the term "pregnancy test." The link you gave me left the "G" out of the word pregnancy, so the search missed it.
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