Posted on 06/18/2005 8:23:43 AM PDT by tuffydoodle
Girl, 15, Sues School Nurse Over Pregnancy Test Lawsuit Claims San Marcos Student's Privacy, Rights Violated
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.
Oh I didn't take it personal = teasing about that part. I have heard that term used among my family members who are in LE - must'a picked it up from them. Bad bad influences.:o)
a prenancy test? testing for things that come before nancy?
I agree that the Peoples Democratic Republic which is our school systems is tramping all over the U. S. Constitution.
"a prenancy test? testing for things that come before nancy?"
The "G" escaped! The "G" escaped! Everybody, run!!!
Somehow, in my homeschooling of my kids, we never got around to Chavez. I made a point of getting an old history text from the 1950's from a book sale, so they get a non-PC version of history thru WW2, then I supplement it with readings from the net and other sources to cover Vietnam, the space program, etc. Modern history texts (like the "History of US" series that's very popular) seem to devote half of the volume covering 1950 - present on the civil rights movement, give a page or so to the space program, and mention Vietnam in passing
Many people would have viewed the situation as an opportunity to prove themselves above all that, if they were. The reaction could have easily been one of confidence and satisfaction rather than one of trauma and shame, both indicative of guilt.
I think you're stretching there. A fifteen year-old-girl is likely to still be quite embarassed by sexual matters, especially if she is still a virgin. Then to have the nurse ask her if she had sex with the boy and then disbelieve her when she denied it. . . It would be very normal for a teenage girl to be horribly embarrassed and angry. I'm surprised she didn't call her parents crying right then.
As the previous poster, I'm ready to conclude that you have never been a teenage girl! :-D
By the way, I am a former French teacher (nasty attorney now). What do you teach?
The official reason for such large schools is "efficiency", so they can spread out the cost of expensive lab equiptment for bio and chem among more students.
Personally, I think that things would be a lot more efficient if we junked the current system of elementary/middle/high-school, and had kids taught in small local schools up until 10th grade, and then have the ones who are serious about continuing their educations into college go to community college to get their lab-oriented science courses and such. HS senior year is mostly a waste. If you're going to college you might as well start doing college-level courses at that point
I teach Spanish. :)
As a lawyer might say, "Your Honor, those are facts not in evidence." Because of the paucity of information here many are surmising things we don't know. We don't know what was actually said, we don't know that the nurse disbelieved her, we don't know if she was a virgin, we don't know what she told her dad, we don't even know how she actually felt. All that is being surmised based on ones personal opinion derived from one's personal frame of reference. (Frame of reference being all our past experiences, including formal education, and the values formed as a result.)
All we really know is that whatever she told her dad made him approach the principal, the principal produced an "out clause", and the dad filed suit. All the rest is being made up out of what each person thinks might have happened. Each is favoring a particular scenario depending on what suits their own experiences. There seems to be a common thread that the girl was a mistreated angel, the nurse was a scum bag and the principal a hardened bureaucrat protecting herself and the system. All of that may be true but we simply don't know. Those of us who present alternate, but real, possibilities are definitely out of the mainstream.
The fact of the sex education being taught in school, beginning at a very early age, the fact that homosexuality and promiscuity is being encouraged in our schools, the fact that so many of our youngsters are sexually promiscuous, again beginning at a very early age, the fact of what is shown on MTV and even mainstream TV and movies, the fact of the lyrics of the music kids listen to, combined with the fact that we have become a thin skinned, politically correct, suit happy society leads me to my opinion. Under those circumstances I doubt the young lady was traumatized, though she may have been. The fact that every perceived wrong must be righted by the government is also part of this situation.
Secondly, why is it traumatic and invoking of feelings of shame, especially if you know you are innocent? That seems a reaction based on self-respect or lack thereof. Being female has nothing to do with it other than the pregnancy part.
My response was regarding this. Yes, I do think such a situation of being falsely accused and disbelieved would be traumatic to a teenage girl. Whether or not that actually occurred here is beside the point. I was merely answering your question.
My opinion is that the nurse was out of line, but I don't think there should be a lawsuit coming out of it. You're assuming too much about my opinions.
Well it reminds me of Red Square in China. Mao's picture hung there for decades. "IDOCTRINATION"
Simple. His "stud rating" with other boys at his school was increased with just the rumor. Having the school test the girl "proved" his story true to his peers.
The real Muhammed Ali is entombed in a crypt in the Citadel, where the Alabaster Mosque is located. Cassius Clay who borrowed his name, can't hold a candle to the likes of this man who ruled Egypt (though not an Egyptian - Muhammed Ali was an Albanian) in the 19th Century). As far as this "Top 25 List" is concerned, Oprah, Elvis and Cassius Clay deserve to be on this list of 'equals'. Could Oprah compare, say Queen Elizabeth I, or Joan d'Arc; could Elvis compare to Mozart or Bach or Handel; could Cassius Clay compare to a Sampson or a Joshua?
"...the NEA doesn't run San Marcos schools..."
So I suppose there is not some inane leftist teacher organization in that part of the world?
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