« Morning Shots | Main | Conservative blowback on NCLB »
March 15, 2007
Frivolous lawsuits?
There are two interesting links in this week's Carnival of Education (at home with the Education Wonks ringleaders) on some ongoing lawsuits. I think they can be instructive for what is sometimes missing in news coverage of this sort of thing. First, to the west coast, where a four-year-old lawsuit regarding a Mormon girl allegedly being taunted for her beliefs is still making its way through the courts:
Kathy and Elden Rice of Santa Rosa sued the [Santa Rosa School District] and three Maria Carrillo High School staff members in 2003 after their then-15-year-old daughter, Rebekah, was disciplined for saying "that's so gay" in her freshman humanities class.
They say their civil rights were violated, alleging Rebekah was harassed and discriminated against for her religious beliefs in that incident and at least two others during her high school tenure.
The family contends the teen was teased by classmates, even threatened, about her church membership and was singled out for extra schoolwork when she declined to attend a classroom showing of an R-rated film, "Saving Private Ryan."
In response, Coach Brown rails on the family, suggesting they "need to take up quilting or ping-pong or some other diversionary hobby to keep their minds off of taking money and time away from school districts." As it happens, I blogged this story way back in 2004, suggesting that Rice was wasting his time and money.* At the time, Elden Rice himself responded to my post and alleged that the harassment by both students and administrators was worse than let on in the story Brown cites. It's also worth pointing out that Rice said the incident report on her record is actually more serious than most people realize since it's considered sexual harassment and can affect her college eligibility. I still think the lawsuit won't get any traction; the alleged incidents happened five years ago, and his daughter has since graduated from high school and is attending a local junior college, making it even less likely he's going to get anywhere in a California courtroom. But the bottom line is that, according to Rice, there were a string of events, many far more serious than the single "that's so gay" incident, that led to the lawsuit. (More broadly, I think this is another example that helps support Neal McCluskey's argument on public schools versus individual values.)
Now to West Virginia, where a leaf project helped spark a lawsuit:
The student was scheduled to attend a student council conference from Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006 through the following Tuesday, Oct. 17. The leaf project -- an assignment in which students typically collect and classify leaves -- was due Tuesday.
According to the lawsuit, the student had completed her project that Saturday and left for the student council leadership training at 10 a.m. Sunday. She returned from the trip after the end of the school day Tuesday. She turned in her project Wednesday morning.
"At no time was the minor plaintiff told by the teacher that she would be punished for being a part of student council by being required to turn her project in prior to the due date," the lawsuit says.
While the Science Goddess is in the district's corner, she sounds a bit conflicted:
It's one of those which, to me, doesn't have a clear winner: both parties are out of order in one way or another. Will they be laughed out of court? Will things be taken seriously and policy be shaped? In the grand scheme of things, a leaf project is not as big of a deal as the family of this student is making it to be.
Initially, I felt the Science Goddess was being entirely too charitable to the student. This girl is bright enough to be on the student council and carry a 4.5 GPA on a five point scale, but didn't have the forethought to work something out with the teacher in advance of the trip? She deserved to flunk the project. As it is, the teacher's policy was to give a zero for all late work, but she relented and gave partial credit. My initial gut reaction was firmly in favor of the teacher and school district.
But then I remembered the Elden Rice lawsuit in California, and how sometimes there can be more to these things than is reported in the news. In the West Virginia case, I'm still behind the district, but I guess it's possible there are some critical factoids we're not hearing.
*Full disclosure: I'm a practicing Latter-day Saint, but I'm not calling Brown or anybody else out on the LDS angle to this story.
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.edspresso.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/1279
Comments
I agree that a seemingly intelligent student made a bad choice. But why is a zero for a grade the only appropriate consequence---something she "deserves"?
I have a hunch that you're right in that there is more to the story than what is reported in the news. We'll probably never get all of the details.
Back to speculating. :)
Posted by: The Science Goddess | March 15, 2007 08:31 PM
