School outed teen to parents, said it was ‘legally obligated’: lawsuit

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story

School outed teen to parents, said it was ‘legally obligated’: lawsuit

By Daniel Tencer
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 -- 8:05 pm


Two softball coaches at a Texas high school are being sued after allegedly confining a teenaged girl in a locked room, forcing her to admit her sexuality, then outing her to her parents before ejecting her from the softball team.

The lawsuit states that the school district defended the actions by saying the teachers were "legally obligated" to inform the parents of the child's sexuality.

According to the suit (PDF) http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/12/22/CivRts.pdf filed in an east Texas federal court, in March of 2009 a junior at Kilgore High School -- identified only as "SW" -- was ordered to a meeting of the softball team. The coaches, named in the lawsuit as Rhonda Fletcher and Cassandra Newell, then dismissed everyone but SW, ordered her into an empty locker room, locked the door and confronted the teen about her sexuality.

"Fletcher asked SW if she was gay, and accused her of having a sexual relationship with another girl. She also claimed that SW was spreading gossip about this other girl being 'Coach Newell’s girlfriend," the lawsuit states.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/school-outed-lesbian-legally-obligated/

[MichiganVote]

1. How do people even begin to believe this is rational?

[DeSwiss]

2. K&R

:mad: Fire their asses!!!

[Homer Wells]

3. DAMN!!!!! Just--DAMN!!! nt

[kpete]

4. MORE:

When SW denied these accusations, Fletcher and Newell reacted angrily. Fletcher stepped in close to SW and began yelling at her, threatening to sue her for slander and demanding that she “stop lying.” Newell also made menacing gestures. SW was very afraid, and feared they might strike her. This behavior went on for a few minutes.

The lawsuit goes on to say that Fletcher called SW's mother and told her to meet the coaches on the field. When the mother arrived, she was informed that her daughter was involved with another girl.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/school-outed-lesbian-legally-obligated/

[niyad]

5. I would think their behaviour would constitute assault, amoung other things.

who in the HELL did they think they were, that the girl's sexuality was ANY of their business?

they should be in jail.

[niyad]

6. by the way, WHERE is the law that says that they are "legally obligated"? if there is such a law,

who in the hell wrote it, and passed it? and WHY?

[Posteritatis]

18. I'd imagine there's no such law or anything close to same

People like to make up laws to intimidate kids all the time, and that reeks of a similar sort of thing - especially since the coaches threatened to sue the kid for defamation.

[ThomCat]

25. it's one of those unwritten privilages of power,

the ability to invent some new laws out of thin air just to intimidate someone. Cops do it frequently. Authoritarian people with a bit of power do it all the time when they need a sudden justification for unjustifiable behavior.

"Oh, yeah, there's a law against that. You didn't know that was illegal?"

[SalmonChantedEvening]

7. Too disgusted by this to say what's on my mind.

[progressoid]

8. What the fuck?

:grr:

[jwirr]

9. Speaking of laws, isn't there a law against illegally locking someone

up and holding them against there will? These coaches broke a long standing law.

[Angry Dragon]

12. I believe it is called kidnapping

[jwirr]

15. Yes, I think so.

[Boojatta]

16. Courts decide whether or not a law was violated.

If the courts decide that a law wasn't violated, then I propose a joint venture with Walmart. The locker room can be renovated and expanded to include a small retail store. Imagine how little merchandise would be stolen if management could, based on nothing more than suspicion, detain shoppers.

[WinkyDink]

19. As OJ Simpson found out.

[JI7]

10. they confined the Girl in a locker room ????????????

this isn't just about outing. they should be arrested.

[ThomCat]

26. Yes, they should be. Detaining her against her will

and yelling at her to intimidate her should be enough to get them arrested.

[tpsbmam]

11. Just horrifying.

I'm surprised there aren't more named in the suit since the "Kilgore school district" asserted the duty to inform the parents about the girl's status. What a load of total bullshit! The coaches should be charged with assault. How terrifying and traumatizing for SW. I hope she has really good support at home.

[Initech]

13. OMG... there are no words.

[The Straight Story]

14. Would it be ok if they outed the girls and they (the girls) were fundies? (nt)

[WinkyDink]

20. What's your point, except to be a smart-arse? This is about a minor.

[alp227]

17. this reminds me of abortion parental notification laws

those laws require hospitals to notify parents if said parents' children get abortions. My home state has gotten those in ballot initiatives for a few years until 2008; those always failed.

And although public schools are in loco parentis, this seems to be going a bit far. I mean, locking her up? Geez I wonder if these coaches used to work at Guantanamo (and were advised by a certain fellow Texan)??

[lpbk2713]

21. They did it so she could be "cured".

:sarcasm:


Personal as well as institutional ignorance knows no bounds.

[MadMaddie]

22. Texas

They imprisoned the young woman first of all so that's a crime.

She had a right to privacy and they violated that privacy.

I wonder if they lock the straight kids up and interrogate them about their sexuality?

[Taverner]

23. This and the Cheerleader/Rape story show the real darkside of Texas

Fuck them!

[MadMaddie]

24. I grew up there and nothing surprises me anymore

They went after Ann Richards when she was running against Junior and claimed she was a lesbian. I believe that is the only reason she lost that race. Guess who started the rumor? Carl Rove...that's right, he was destroying reputations back then.