Teens Accused of Being Lesbians Sue School

[Judi Lynn]

Dec. 30, 2005, 1:04AM
Teens Accused of Being Lesbians Sue School


© 2005 The Associated Press

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Two 16-year-olds who were expelled from a 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 small California Lutheran High School, unspecified damages and an injunction barring the school from excluding gays and lesbians.

Kirk D. Hanson, an attorney 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 whether his clients are lesbians.
(snip)

The lawsuit alleges that the school's principal, Gregory Bork, called the girls into his office, grilled them on their sexual orientation and "coerced" one girl into saying she loved the other.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/3555638.h...
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[Syrinx]

1. my junior high principal accused me and a friend of holding hands

I got suspended for three days and kicked out of honor society after telling him to "shut up."

[lvx35]

2. holding hands?

like this?


well, could be worse. Could have accused you of doing this:

[Syrinx]

3. ha ha!

That's funny and disturbing.

Actually we weren't holding hands or anything. We just weren't in a perfect line... sort of shoulder to shoulder instead. That principal was an ass-monkey. I bet he votes Repug. His name was Dr. Pepper... I swear that's true!

[lvx35]

4. I'm sure he was repug.

Anybody who'd say something like that would have to be...An yet the thing that go on in the whitehouse and out! whooey!

[Xenotime]

22. repugs are facinated and offended by gays...

all at the same time. They say the hate it but love to watch. What hyporicrates.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Or like this?

[Syrinx]

6. who's that with Bush? n/t

[Judi Lynn]

7. Ricky Martin, Latin singer from Puerto Rico

I think his most popular song is "Livin' La Vida Loca," but I couldn't swear on it, not really being a fan.

[Syrinx]

8. thanks! I knew he looked famous.

just couldn't place him.

[Botany]

10. Why do I see want to scream closet case when I see bush?

I am totally straight but sometimes bush sets off my gaydar.

[LostinVA]

11. Ricky Martin is the closet case

It was kinda known that Martin was gay, then after all of these photos appeared in magazines with him and his sexy BF, he suddenly got himself a GF who ran around telling the press what a great, manly lover he was, and he ranted about how he was straight. Gag.

[gulfcoastliberal]

24. Google Bush and Victor Ashe, check it out - nt

[KatyaR]

36. I swear, I look at that photo,

and if he was a little larger, he'd look exactly like Truman Capote (who was one of my favorite people to watch on TV when I was a kid, and I had no clue what "gay" was).

[Deja Q]

23. Mmmm... Ricky is a hottie. But Bush's smile is utterly faked. Also,

note that 'honest' Abe Lincoln is crossin' his legs. Of course, upon seeing the Rick'r, I'd be crossin' mine too...

[EFerrari]

27. Lesbians didn't exist when I was in junior high.

[Posteritatis]

32. Something like that happened here

The year after Columbine, the schools were well and truly mired into Everything's A Vile Threat mode. One junior high school principal in my neck of the woods took that to its logical conclusion and deemed any physical contact whatsoever to be violence, worthy of an immediate suspension and/or expulsion.

He took that far enough to suspend students who hugged one another, shook hands, tapped someone on the shoulder to get their attention, etc etc etc. Over the course of a semester about a third of the student body got suspended at least once.

Eventually, the students cracked; most of the couple hundred remaining students just up and walked out of class, and said they wouldn't be returning until the zero tolerance policy was replaced with something that had at least a glimmer of intelligence to it. To make it even better, a couple other junior high schools in the district ended up doing the same thing. The principal bluffed and threatened and screamed in rage for a couple days, and then abruptly folded.

In the end the students got a majority vote in drafting the new discipline policy; I think the principal was transferred too. None of the students who walked out were disciplined, and I think the records of the ones who got nailed for trivial stuff got cleaned.

My own high school tried something similarly stupid at one point; the principal went so far as to try to forbid students from disagreeing with one another (at all, about anything - yes, he was explicit about this), because he was that freaked out over a recent spate of fights. A couple of my friends demonstrated the absurdity of it by ostentatiously disagreeing with one another about great works of literature while standing outside of his office. Again, the policy was quickly dropped without another word.

[Child_Of_Isis]

9. who declined to say whether his clients are lesbians.

Wonder why that was put in there?

[gratuitous]

12. The paper probably asked

Even though it doesn't seem germane to the story. Certainly a private school has the right to set whatever ridiculous rules it wants to enforce, but from the description in the account there was no overt act that led to the girls' expulsion. The ostensible reason the school gave for expelling the girls is that one of the girls said she loved the other. And of course, love has no place in a Christian high school -- at least a Christian high school run by folks who haven't yet quite grasped that whole "Love one another" concept.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

25. Wonder why it was asked?

Seems to me it's nobody's damn business.

[TheBaldyMan]

13. conclusive proof the Bush is a 'Big Girly Ape'!

at this link here

Absolutely Fabulous

[u4ic]

29. He's just Walking Like An Egyptian

[NaturalHigh]

14. Is this a private school?

If so, I don't see much of a case here. If it's a public school, it's probably a slam dunk.

[OneBlueSky]

15. and the weirdest thing is that the students were guys! . . . n/t :)

.

[The Flaming Red Head]

16. They would've thought me and my friend were gay

We've known each other since we were toddlers and now 42 years later and we're still friends, never lesbians, but we were inseparable. They wouldn't even schedule our classes together. We had the same first name. Always referred to as the Melanies. If one got in trouble they'd suspend or send both of us to detention they were so sure we were both involved.


Edited to say what's wrong with saying you Love a same sex best friend?

[oregonindy]

17. funny....the bible says absolutely nothing bout lesbians.

why are the xtians pissed about it?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

26. Interpretation is 9/10ths of the Bible.

[TahitiNut]

18. What's wrong with being a lesbian?

I really detest the idea that this would be seen as a slander. How would we react if the headline said "Teens Accused of Being Heterosexuals Sue School"???

This shit is really appalling. The very headline itself panders to bigotry.

[MrPrax]

19. I hope them all success...

In fact, I hope that lawsuit not only closes the school and related church, but the principle, administration and teachers are left penniless and homeless.

They all allowed it to go on and they all should be condemned--enough of hate-mongering bigots simply stating, 'oh I push my noxious social and political beliefs coz I read it in Leviticus'. This is about as acceptable as Southern racists for excusing themselves with, 'that's just the way things are done'.

They're dangerous and they are becoming a threat to everyone...

[Ian David]

20. I think the key test should be, does the school accept taxpayer money

from vouchers or "faith-based initiative" funding.

My personal opinion is that religious institutions should be allowed to discriminate against anyone they want to, provided they don't receive one damn dime of taxpayer money.

In return, I would ask that they keep out of secular affairs such as "defining marriage."

I know that's too much to ask though.

So, I say let that school take its lumps.

[pitohui]

33. so private drugstores should be allowed to refuse service to blacks?

i'm sorry, i don't give a happy crap whether they are private or public, whether they get taxpayer $$$ or whether they are wholly self-funded or even turning a profit

discrimination is wrong and shouldn't be tolerated in this country

how hard is that?

there should be real financial consequences for this school, i sure agree on that

and before you say my example is not the same thing, please be aware that in decades not too far past, many religions did teach that certain races and/or that women were inferior, when i visited the big mormon church in salt lake city, they told us outright that under their religion that blacks are not equal (they've backtracked on this, having learned that blacks are some of the most loyal church-goers), my revised standard version of the new testament says plain as day, that women should submit to men as the church submits to the head of christ

and i could prob. give an example from every christian sect and many other religions that can be used to prove someone is inferior to someone else

as far as i'm concerned, discrimination is intolerable, even if it is within the walls of their hateful little church

kudos to the young women for standing up for their rights

[Ian David]

34. I meant just for RELIGIOUS organizations that don't accept government $

It would still be wrong and morally reprehensible, but within their rights.

[AspenRose]

21. OK, private Christian school, time to re-read the bible story about

David and Jonathan. *sigh* Makes me wonder if the principal would have "grilled" them, too.

[Roland99]

28. The Amazing Kreskin is now principal of a Catholic school?

Bork acknowledged that officials had seen no physical contact between the girls but said their friendship was "uncharacteristic of normal girl relationships and more characteristic of a lesbian one."

What an asshat!!


This guy would have a coronary if he ever walked the streets of most any city in Europe. Seeing women walking arm-in-arm and hugging and even men doing the same. And, guess what, they're not gay! It's just a more open display of friendship.

This country has been consistently moving toward more and more liberal attitudes, socially speaking. Only when the social conservatives rise to power do we see ignorance such as this dominate the airwaves and the lives of Americans.

[Trillo]

35. I suspect this has been happening in private schools for a lot longer

than just the last few years. Hmm. Pre-Regean, say, 1975. Yep, I'm sure I've heard of it that far back. I've also read that this unremarkable type of private school expulsion is usually kept quite quiet, suggesting there's a lot more of it than is heard.

[KamaAina]

30. "Accused" of being lesbians?!

What a crappy headline. Since when is being a lesbian a crime?

The lawsuit alleges that the school's principal, Gregory Bork, called the girls into his office,

Any relation to Robert?

[ieoeja]

31. Okay then, how about ...

Girls sue school for kicking them out because of accusations of lesbianism.

When I first saw the headline I was expecting to hear them suing over the damage they "suffered" as a result of being accused of being a lesbian. And was mentally preparing a response along the lines of, "the really sad thing is that an accusation of being a lesbian can be harmful".

So in the sense that the headline led me to expect one thing and see another, yeah, it seems kind of crappy. But I can't think of a better headline for this story. The lesbian accusation is certainly central to the story. That *is* why they were kicked out of school after all.

[dusmcj]

37. would that the Reformator returned

only 10 years to go until the half-millenium anniversary. It would appear that Cal Lutheran High has deviated - ahem - from the core principles of the individual taking responsibility for his relationship with the Creator and with Existence, and is instead promoting conformism and adherence to external dictates. I believe these were behaviors that gave rise to the degeneracies of the universal church that the Luther-ans were interested in addressing, no ?

I suggest that principal Bork is a bumblefuck moron. I thought they ran out of those in Cali a while ago, what a surprise...