Fla. student who mooned teacher sues

Yahoo News ^ | Wed Apr 4, 7:47 PM ET | unspecified

[Northern Alliance]

CLEARWATER, Fla. - A high school senior acknowledges he went too far when he mooned a teacher. But he thinks the decision of school officials to send him to a new school for the rest of the year was too harsh, so his family is suing.

Tyler Tillung, 18, mooned a teacher "suddenly and without thinking about the consequences" in February, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday. The teacher had declined to let him into a Feb. 21 school lip sync show that was full. He was suspended for six days and reassigned to a new school.

But the teen wants to graduate with his Palm Harbor University High class in six weeks and complete his final season on the varsity baseball team, the lawsuit said.

"We're talking about his graduation," said Tillung's lawyer, B. Edwin Johnson. "That's an important event in a guy's life. ... This kid deserves a break."

School Board Attorney Jim Robinson said administrators stand by their decision.

"Without knowing the allegations, we're confident in the administration's position on this case," Robinson said. Palm Harbor principal Herman "Doc" Allen described the mooning as "disgusting" and the teacher as "traumatized."

[Teacher317]

"We're talking about his graduation," said Tillung's lawyer, B. Edwin Johnson. "That's an important event in a guy's life. ... This kid deserves a break."

Please tell us, WHY does he deserve a break, sir?

(I'm not saying he does or doesn't... but I wish the word "deserving" wasn't so meaningless today.)

[Smokin' Joe]

School Board Attorney Jim Robinson ...

You ahem moonlighting?

[Teacher317]

I think it’s just the lawyers preparing the right words and “evidence” for the inevitable court battle.

[traditional1]

This could have been a MUCH bigger event than it is:

[NorthFlaRebel]

More details of the story. Read before coming to a conclusion.

Taylor's parents have hired a lawyer and are appealing the transfer, furious at what they say is a lack of due process, a series of exaggerations by school officials and the system's failure to consider such factors as their son's good grades and discipline record.

Todd and Terry Tillung concede that their son's actions were wrong, but say school officials are being unreasonable.

"If there was just cause, I could understand it," Terry Tillung said. "I just don't feel that this is fair."

At issue: the nature of Taylor's act, the details of the moments leading up to it, the severity of his punishment and the process officials used in meting out discipline.

The family has hired B. Edwin Johnson, a Clearwater lawyer who once was the School Board's attorney for 14 years.

However the case turns out, the 18-year-old from Palm Harbor says he would take back the night of Feb. 21 if he could.

"Everybody who's been through high school knows what it means to (graduate) with their class; not many people know what it's like to have it taken away from you because of one mistake," Taylor said this week.

"I don't know of a better lesson that I've learned in my life. Good decisions will take you everywhere and bad ones will take you nowhere."

While a student in the medical magnet program at Palm Harbor, Taylor had a 3.2 grade point average and was accepted at Florida State University on a Bright Futures Scholarship. He says his discipline record consists of two referrals for being tardy. A leader on the varsity baseball team, the transfer will prevent him from playing the second half of his senior season.

What was he thinking when he mooned a teacher?

"I didn't think about the repercussions coming out of it," he said. "In my mind, I thought it was a joke because you see it in movies."

High school students who are transferred in their final semester can ask a district review panel to let them graduate from their original school. But Palm Harbor principal Herman "Doc" Allen has recommended against letting Taylor back into the school.

He said teachers fear other students will engage in similar acts in the weeks before graduation "if we do not dole out a severe punishment for this sort of behavior."

The incident took place the night of the annual Lip Sync show, which drew a full house in the school auditorium. Arriving late because of baseball practice, Taylor was one of about 12 students trying to get in after the auditorium reached capacity and ticket sales ended. Drama teacher Carla Webster came to the door to explain the situation.

According to a letter Allen wrote to district officials, Taylor forced open the door and began to argue with Webster, saying he was a senior and a baseball player and shouldn't be deprived of seeing his last Lip Sync show. "Mrs. Webster indicated that he leaned into her in a threatening manner in his abusive tirade."

Allen said Taylor backed off when the teacher said she was going to get the school resource officer. Moments later, he said, Taylor dropped his pants.

"He even tugged a second time on the right side to make sure that his rear end was completely exposed," Allen's letter said. "Mrs. Webster indicated that Taylor bent over and used both hands to spread his buttocks apart as far as he could, with this exposure directed at the teacher."

The letter said Taylor was 5 feet from the teacher, and that the gesture lasted 15 to 20 seconds. He also wrote that Taylor initially lied about the incident to the resource officer before coming clean.

Webster declined to comment. But Allen wrote that she "feels that (Taylor) needs to understand that you can't just brush everything aside with a simple and insincere apology for such a blatantly vulgar act."

After 37 years with the district, Allen said, Webster is retiring at the end of the school year and deserved more respect. He said she had never been mooned by a student.

Taylor had a different account.

"She opened the door enough for me to talk to her," he said. "And I did put my foot in the door to make sure she could hear me. There was no argumentation. There was a pleading on my part."

He said of Allen's description: "It was a bit of an exaggeration. The words that they used make it seem like a lot worse than I intended it to be."

He and his parents dispute that the act took 15 seconds. "The whole pulling down, spreading, pulling pants back up: five seconds," Taylor said.

He said he initially lied about the incident because he was afraid, but quickly decided to apologize.

He also said his remorse is sincere. He said he apologized to Webster that night and delivered a letter to her the next day.

His mother, Terry Tillung, said she talked to the parent of a student who recently mooned people in the school auditorium with Webster present. That student was given a three-day suspension.

Johnson, the Tillungs' attorney, said the district violated its policy when Allen made the decision to transfer Taylor. That decision should have been made by Alec Liem, a district-level official, after hearing all the evidence, he said.

Liem heard the family's appeal last week, but only considered whether the process had been followed correctly. He ruled that it had, and that Taylor had been given ample opportunity to state his case.

The family has one more appeal with the district and says it is prepared to go to court.

Johnson said Taylor's punishment is the result of Webster's anger over the incident.

"Let's not take anger to an unreasonable level," he argued. "You put that on the scale of justice and what do you got? What happens to Taylor - this life-changing event - is so major compared to the anger."

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[ltc8k6]

My squad mooned our female 1LT in celebration of the end of a 2 week field excercise. She cracked up and filed no charges. Didn’t seem traumatized, either.

[Mad Dawg]

Good response.

I Don't think it's mere perp shuffling. If it were I'd be against it. It is an effective demonstration (as somebody else said) pour les autres: If you do not behave honorably, you will not receive the honors you wish. A symbolic act of disrespect is punished by depriving the student of a symbolic act of respect -- and it's only a partial deprivation. He gets the diploma, he can walk across a stage, he just does so in exile and in a strange school.

[Mad Dawg]

"Everybody who's been through high school knows what it means to (graduate) with their class; not many people know what it's like to have it taken away from you because of one mistake," Taylor said this week.

I loathe this use of "mistake". He mooned her unintentionally or by accident? It sure sounds like it was an intended act.

So the argument against the transfer is that bad procedue was followed and that another student received a lighter sentence.

I'd like to hope it IS a life-changing event for the young man.

[Corin Stormhands]

Maybe the school went too far. But maybe he’ll think twice next time. Instead of suing the parents should have introduced him to their own “Board of Correction.”

That said, any high school teacher who is “traumatized” by being mooned has no business teaching high school.

[cspackler]

Well, the students obviously learned nothing from the first penalty, since that did not deter him from being a moron.

I still don’t get why people think that graduating from high school is a big deal. So what, you miss a meaningless ceremony? Most of the burger-flippers in the world have a hs doploma, big whoop. I think the poor child will survive.

I also think there’s a big difference between a simple moon and giving someone the ‘ol brown-eye. The kid deserves it, and his parents should suck it up. He’s lucky he’s graduating at all.

[wbill]

My 2c?

The kid did something stupid. That's what teenaged boys do. A simple suspension sounds like a good punishment to me....and there was a precedent.

Kicking him off the baseball team and out of school seems a bit excessive, given the fact that he had no history of dicipline problems. (2 Tardies? Meaningless. I used to get them occasionally myself because I couldn't walk the 1/2 mile from the detached gym to the far end of the school in the 3-minute-period between classes. Some teachers were less understanding than others....)

[LaineyDee]

Would you want to be as cavalier about the punishment...if say your daughter brought home her boyfriend and he flips you off when you ask where they’re going on their date? Would you want to suspend him from the house for a couple days to reflect on his actions..... or would you want to take his arm off and beat him with the bloody end? Would you care if this had been his first offense? Just wondering........ :)

[albee]

"How does sending him to another school address the problem? Keep him in the same school and he finishes off the year as a rock star.

Actions have consequences. Keep this kid away for the rest of the year!

[grasshopper2]

That the parents would side with the student against the teacher in this is outrageous.

Exactly. The parents have taught this kid to be a disreapectful punk bailing out his little hiney. Glad to see the school is holding to their consequence. Too often, the school just caves in to the parents and the problem just gets worse with more disrespect in the school.

[HitmanLV]

I agree - people appear to be way too willing to be depicted as emotional lightweights in court pleadings.

[wbill]

Nice Straw Man argument.

But since you asked.....1) If I had a daughter, this hypothetical boyfriend wouldn't do that. My Hypothetical Daughter would have enough sense not to date someone who'd do such a thing.

and 2) The same hypothetical boyfriend would never perform such an act, because I'd answer the door carrying a shotgun. In my boxers and wifebeater T-shirt.

So...there'd never BE a first offense. :-)

I still think that - as far as the school is concerned - the punishment doesn't fit the crime, particularly with the precedents that were set. However, If I pulled a stunt like that, a school suspension would be the absolute least of my worries compared to what was waiting for me when I got home. I could see my Dad waiting for me at the door....."SO, you've got a little vacation from school? Weeelll....here the list (3 feet +) of things that *will* be done before you go back".

[RJS1950]

We had 3 squadron commanders go to the end of the runway and moon the SAC IG team as they took off following a very contentious inspection during which our wing commander had the security police escort the senior inspector from wing headquarters with orders not to let him return.

[LaineyDee]

LOL... A wife-beater and a shotgun? Do you live in East Texas?

Seriously though, that wasn't a "straw man argument".. passing it off is an excuse for bad behavior.

The young "man" should be happy he got transferred to another school ..instead of a jailhouse for indecent exposure. (unheard of nowadays, eh?)

[Mad Dawg]

I'm not sure that "consequences" at school should be binding to the extent that a kid could say, "Well, if I moon Mrs. So-and-so the worst it will cost me a x days suspension." In other words, I'm not prepared to grant the "precedent" argument any force to determine or restrict future punishments.

And from the school's POV, it would be nice to have parents who would support them instead of hauling them into court. These days the default position is that the parent will support the child against the teacher, and the kids learn this. My wife recently had a conference with some parents whose child had been complaining to them about the racial prejudice of the teachers -- until the parents sat down with the teachers and the kid and took a look at it all together, and the kid was pretty much put in a corner and had to admit he was gaming the situation.

The kid broke the law. The kid should massive and grotesquely obscene behavior. An athletic teenage male and a retirement (read: grandmother) age teacher. I think the little jerk is lucky not to be in juvie.

You are lucky in your Dad. We are dealing now with kids in juvie who are bragging about the number of bastards they've sired. We've got special classes for high school juniors who have babes in arms. We've got high school football players assaulting sophomore juniors in the halls, and if the junior fights back she gets suspended along with her assailants under the asinine "zero-tolerance" rules which, since they are not accompanied by the requisite security personnel, just give the upper hand to the thugs and the bullies.

It's all very well to talk about what your father would have done back in the day. In those days suspension would be a punishment. In these days, with both parents working outside the home and no one to make sure the overgrown brat's suspension is anything more than six days hanging around the mall, suspension won't stop a thing. This is today, the kid's behavior was disgustingly obscene, and way more than a "mistake". It's time for the schools to say, "Enough!" They can't rely on the parents.

The punishment is merciful because it ends with graduation and doesn't affect the little thug's GPA. It's severe because it deprives him of an honor to which he is no longer entitled. I think it's Solomonic.

[Northern Alliance]

Would an 18-year-old female student mooning a male teacher have the same consequences? .... THAT, is the real question......

Tests would be done on the teacher to establish whether or not he received any sexual gratification from the incident, and if so, would be charged with a crime; branded a sex offender; be subject to approximately 20 different lifetime restrictions on his movements and have to wear a GPS forever. Oh, the student - she'd get counselling.