Teens sue Riverside evangelical school over lesbian suspicions

AP ^ | 12/29/5

[SmithL]

Riverside -- Two 16-year-old girls who were expelled from a private Lutheran high school because they were suspected of being lesbians have sued the school for invasion of privacy and discrimination.

The lawsuit, filed last week in Riverside County Superior Court, seeks the girls' re-enrollment at the tiny California Lutheran High School, unspecified damages and an injunction barring the school from excluding gays and lesbians.

The suit could be a test case in the state on whether religious schools can deny enrollment to gays and lesbians, said Richard Ackerman, a lawyer who is president of Temecula's Pro-Family Center, which focuses on lawsuits dealing with conservative Christian values.

"There's no established law on this issue," said Ackerman, who's not involved in the current litigation. "It's very likely this will be a precedent-setting case."

Kirk D. Hanson, co-counsel for the girls, said the expulsion traumatized and humiliated them.

"Their entire support network was pulled out from under them because of suspicions about their sexual orientation," said Hanson, who declined to say if his clients were lesbians.

[BigTime]

Lutheran ping

[Accygirl]

This is the only religious school that I've heard of that would kick out students on suspicions that they were gay. I went to a Catholic High School, and one of my best guy friends was openly gay and was never threatened with expulsion (although he was taunted often by all those good Catholic children). So I think that that threat is a pretty empty one.

Frankly, I think that posts with such hostility toward gays really make us open to the liberals' charge that all conservatives are evil bigots. I get why people are PO'd about a specific interest group using the courts to advance its agenda; however, that doesn't mean I approve of the 'tude taken toward gay people. I find it offensive just like I find the principal's tactics toward the girls offensive. It's hard enough being a teen today without having to deal with added ridicule from a respected adult.

[Nalu]

http://www.gracehollis.com/attorneys_hanson_2.html

In case you would like to give him a call here is contact info.
Phone Number (619) 692-0800
Fax Number (619) 692-0822



Kirk was born in Glendale, California on May 8, 1965. He grew up in Los Angeles, California, and has lived in San Diego since 1983. After graduating from college, Kirk and his brother hiked the entire length of the 2,700 mile Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada.

Kirk joined the firm in October of 1995. He concentrates his practice on employment law (including wage/hour claims and the defense and prosecution of discrimination claims under state and federal law), construction defect defense, personal injury claims, business litigation and appellate law. Kirk became a partner in the firm in April, 2002.

[Mrs. Don-o]

And you, personally, have the authority to tell the Lutheran Church and its affiliated schools how they are to define and prioritize sins because...?

[Mrs. Don-o]

You wrote: "Since they aren't morally pure themselves, they shouldn't be judging others' behavior."

Are you saying that only those who are perfectly pure can make any judgments about right and wrong? That would be: who?

You apparently think the Lutherans are wrong to expel these girls from their private school. That seemsto be a judgment on your part. Very good. And you are qualified to make this judgment because..?

[SauronOfMordor]

Translation,they are,*in fact*,lesbians and insist that this religious school (and,most likely,no religious school) must not be allowed to follow its own teachings regarding basic moral issues.

Even more likely: they already had a lawyer preparing the case when their lesbian status was "leaked" to school administrators. I think this is a setup

[Accygirl]

Hypocrisy is the worst sin of all in my opinion. Unless they're expelling all the students who are having sex, which I very much doubt they are, the principal has no right to expel the girls. And he definitely has no right to publicly humiliate them like he did.

[Mrs. Don-o]

But...but...but you said that only those who are morally pure can make any judgment. That would be you?

And: your judgment is that hypocrisy is the worst sin. Is this Lutheran doctrine? And the reason why a Lutheran school should be required to be run according to Accygirl doctrines is because...?

Third point: If these girls were concerned about their privacy, dang, I just can't understand why they would be showing offensive pictures of themselves around the school. And double dang: now they're bringing a lawsuit against the school, with a great fanfare in the press. By the evidence: are they avoiding, or seeking publicity?

[ccwoman]

I am not claiming to have authority to tell them how to run their school ..but if the news account is correct, I can and will say that the principal handled the situation very poorly. One male talking to two girls alone, accusing them of being gay and expelling them alone is not the proper way to handle such a sensitive issue. Private churches hold themselves to a higher standard and thus should reflect that standard.

[Accygirl]

I'm just pointing the obvious... Frankly, the principal is not morally pure since he's willing to humiliate two of his students for no reason. He should work on his own sins before he judges others.

Two other insights:

- If the varsity QB decided to shop sexy photos of his girlfriend around the school, would he be punished in the same way... If this school is anything like my morally upright Catholic high school, I very much doubt it.

- I'm very sensitive to teasing/ humiliation because I've had so much experience with it. One of my best guy friends was openly gay, and he endured four years of horrible taunting from the other good Catholic children at my school. Moreover, another acquaintance attempted suicide after some popular girls thought it would be funny to spread untrue rumors about her sexual orientation. The school didn't help out in either of these situations, and frankly I think that they have blood on their hands in the latter incident since the principal basically ignored my friend after our favorite teacher encouraged her to talk to him about the situation.

[Mrs. Don-o]

This article quotes only the lawsuit itself and the students' attorney; obviously we're getting the whole story.

Based, however, on the little that we have, it's evident that these accusations would never have been made if the girls themselves weren't circulating photos of themselves in sexually suggestive poses. So much for the so-sensitive "privacy" issue which they themselves violated.

The fact that they are now suing the school because they claim that their expulsion instanced discrimination against "gays and lesbians" means that they now wish to identify themselves in public as gay/lesbian.

If the school had boy/girl couples acting in a similar fashion, circulating photos of themselves and identifying themselves as lovers; or, say, an unmarried man/woman teacher couple who behaved in such a fashion, can you really believe that a Lutheran religious school wouldn't respond as they did in this instance?

A religious school is a faith community. Why do people want to barge into faith communities if they reject its faith and morals, and are in fact willing to try to use lawsuits to force the faith community to abandon its beliefs and practices?

Let's say the girls have the right to act gay. Why can't this school act Lutheran?

[Mrs. Don-o]

"Frankly, the principal is not morally pure since he's willing to humiliate two of his students for no reason. He should work on his own sins before he judges others."

Ahem. I was talking about you. What gives you the right to judge, if only the pure may judge? Why don't you work on your own sins, before you judge him?

And... humiliate two students? THEY are the ones who circulated the photos, not him. THEY are the ones who went to the press. THEY are the ones who are bringing the lawsuit. There's nothing in this article that says he humiliated them to the public in any way.

And you think the QB who circulated sexy photos of his girlfriend wouldn't be treated the same? We're both speculating, but I doubt his behavior would be tolerated. Nor should it be.

The peer cruelty you described which your friends endured is appalling and cannot in any way be defended. My own opinion is that the peer culture out there is deeply corrupt --- students being incredibly cutting and wounding to each other ----which is one reason why we're a homeschooling family.

Back when I was a political lesbian, years ago, it was the kindness of Christians that saved my troubled soul.

[Accygirl]

But the culture at the school, encouraged by the teachers, parents, and principal, is what caused the incidents to occur. If I had gone to a school where there was a no tolerance policy for such incidents, then nothing would have happened to my friends or anyone else. Children, especially teens, take their cues from adults.

Clearly, if the behavior demonstrated by the principal was any taste of what is permitted in that school, then there's serious issues. First, we don't even know if the picture incident was true; since it's a private institution, they could have been expelled because of the words of a single student with any ulterior motive. Secondly, even if they were circulating racy photos, then the principal could have handled the situation with more tact. Mocking and humiliating a student, even one who has made a serious mistake, is horrible behavior for an adult role model to engage in. It tells the students that it's OKAY for them to act likewise toward their classmates, acquaintances, etc.

[fwdude]

The gaystopo camp makes many more moral judgments than the good, plain, Christian people in this private school. Observe how readily and profusely the term "homophobe" is directed to anyone even remotely questioning even the most debased lifestyle of homosexuals. Be assured that the hypocrisy accusation is a ruse - no outcry would result from this camp if the other unchristian activities mentioned (unsupported accusations in this case) were harshly punished and openly gay activity was tolerated with impunity. The objective is a selective enforcement of an agenda, a very real and organized agenda. There is a vast support system behind these girls that was in place before any punitive action by the school occurred.

[fwdude]

But the culture at the school, encouraged by the teachers, parents, and principal, is what caused the incidents to occur.

??????????? Completely incoherent.

[Accygirl]

Read the posts that I was referring to before you start your personal attacks please...

I was writing a response to another poster about certain incidents that I experienced when I was in high school. She contended that these incidents were due to nasty teens, but I asserted that the attitudes of the teachers, principals, etc. were what caused the aforementioned incidents to occur. Similar attitudes seem to be prevalent among the adult staff at the school in question.

[flaglady47]

Frankly, I think that posts with such hostility toward gays really make us open to the liberals' charge that all conservatives are evil bigots.

You ain't no conservative, toots. Maybe your response on this subject (gays) is explained by the "girl" part of your monicker. You must be very young yourself, and therefore raised as a mind full of mush in a public school and therefore stuffed full of liberal baloney, or you just haven't got what it takes to figure out what moral behavior means when attending a religious school. Your argument is totally lame, and I can tell you are a youngster by your use of words such as 'PO'd', and 'tude', and I highly suspect you are quite the liberal youngster at that, palming yourself off as a conservative. Why don't you go to the DU site where you'll find like-minded people. I'm afraid it's attitudes like yours that give liberals like you a bad name.

[hispanichoosier]

And, no doubt, the tort lawyers and ACLU are rubbing their hands in glee.

I don't think it applies here, but if they are not gay, they may have a heck of a defamation lawsuit. I know that in Indiana accusations of homosexuality, if false, constitute slander per se.

[flaglady47]

I don't think it applies here, but if they are not gay, they may have a heck of a defamation lawsuit. I know that in Indiana accusations of homosexuality, if false, constitute slander per se.

If they are not gay, then they shouldn't be out there pretending to be gay, should they? That's a form of deception and, if bringing false charges here, a form of fraud in order to cash in by lawsuit. Either way, these two twits disgust me, and once again point to the slow degeneracy of our society, a death by a thousand cuts. Hope you are around when the sh*t hits the fan, so you can experience the results of making our country into another third-world, morally decadent place to live. The EU and Canada are a lot further down this road than we are, but we're not that far behind. That's when extremists wipe out their weaker globemates. A replay of Athens and Sparta.

[Accygirl]

I'm a libertarian-minded conservative, who likes Dubya's tax cuts and his foreign policy. I, however, try to remain open minded toward other people and their lifestyles, especially since one of my best friends in high school happened to be gay. My parents were always very open to him and very accepting of who he was. I very much doubt that most people spewing such hostile rhetoric on this thread would ever permit their children to hang out with an openly gay child, and that fact makes me very sad.

As for private schools, I attended Catholic schools throughout my life and don't have any use for them. Certain children, whose parents gave $$$ to the school or who were exceptional athletes or students or in some way made the school look really good, didn't have to follow the same rules that the rest of us did. The school administration, especially the principal, also permitted a very poisonous atmosphere to exist in my high school and did nothing to help the victim in any situations. My friend attempted suicide because of their failure to help her, and I know of many other such attempts.