December 02, 2005

A Bad Ruling For School Administrators, Teachers And Other Personnel

What other bits of information are school personnel not permitted to disclose to parents, and how are we to know?

A federal judge ruled that a lesbian student can sue her school district and her principal for revealing her homosexuality to her mother.
Charlene Nguon, 17, may go forward with her suit claiming violation of privacy rights, U.S. District Judge James V. Selna ruled in a decision dated Nov. 28 and announced Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Orange County's Garden Grove district had argued that Nguon openly kissed and hugged her girlfriend on campus and thus had no expectation of privacy.

However, the judge ruled that Nguon had "sufficiently alleged a legally protected privacy interest in information about her sexual orientation."

No trial date was set. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

"This is the first court ruling we're aware of where a judge has recognized that a student has a right not to have her sexual orientation disclosed to her parents, even if she is out of the closet at school," said Christine Sun, an ACLU attorney who brought the case.

Now this creates quite a quandary, in my opinion? How are we, as teachers, supposed to know what students have and have not disclosed to parents – especially when information is public in the school setting? After all, this girl was very public about her sexuality at school. And does this same measure of privacy also include other details of a sexual nature, such as a teacher becoming aware that a child is sexually active (but not being abused)? Where are the lines? This ruling leaves me very unsure.

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Posted by: Greg at 01:12 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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1 This is clearly the work of activist judges who've signed to the homosexual agenda.

How will we protect traditional family values if teachers are not allowed to share every aspect of their students' personal life with the parents. I mean, really, if teacher's aren't allowed to get involved in everything EXCEPT educating a student where will this country end up?

These damn liberals need to learn: Education comes second to privacy invasion.

Posted by: Mr.GOP at Tue Dec 6 03:50:21 2005 (YAEN3)

2 Well, clearly you know nothing about being a classroom teacher. For good or ill, we become privy to lots of information that we would rather not have -- but which we find ourselves thinking might be important and desired by a parent. If we disclose it, we face a lawsuit from the kid. If we don't disclose it, we face a lawsuit from the parents. I just want to know what the lines are.

Oh by the way -- I just wish that I could chuck all the other stuff and teach. Unfortunately, we who work in the schools have had so many other dities added by government mandate that we sometimes wonder when we get to teach.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Tue Dec 6 14:44:07 2005 (iRlz8)

3 Like I said, I agree with you whole heartedly. Teachers SHOULD be all involved in the private lives of their students, and they should be discussing things like sexuality and such with the parents.

After all the gender a student is attracted to is far more a priority than how the student's academic performance is.

Remember, education is not that big of a deal. Kids will always have people telling them how to think, but if parents aren't notified of that their kids are making GOD hate them, then they won't be able to ship them off to camps like Love in Action to be fixed. We're talking about people's souls here and the liberals want to whine about things like "education" and "privacy." Typical.

Posted by: Mr.GOP at Wed Dec 7 03:32:11 2005 (YAEN3)

4 You clearly don't understand at all. One of the unfortunate realities of my career is that I've come to know much more about the sex lives of teens than I would ever want to know. Take these two real situations -- where is the boundary between student privacy/parent's right to know?

1) Picking up after class, I find a note between a couple of my students. I discover one girl, age 15, is engaging in unprotected sex with a 17-year-old boyfriend when she goes to her cousin's home after school until her mom picks her up after work. Do you tell mom or not?

2) While discussing papers paper during class (topic -- write a persuasive letter to the principal proposing am extracurricular club or organization that you think would benefit the school), Student A proposes a Gay Straight Alliance. Student B calls Student A a "carpet-muncher" and claims that an hour with him can get her to "change teams". Student C stands up and tells Student B that "my girlfriends tongue does more for me than your little tiny nigger dick ever could." When contacting parents about the situation and the disciplinary actions against Students B & C, how do you deal with the privacy concerns raised by this court decision?

Please notice -- these two situations did not involve me prying. They did not involve me prying into personal issues or holding inappropriate discussions with students. One involved a situation in which parent contact was mandatory.

So, my little troll friend, would you care to engage in a serious answer to a serious question?

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Wed Dec 7 08:41:27 2005 (0EnAI)

5 I've never been called a troll by so many of the faithful before.

I don't know why you're trying to justify yourself to me. I completely agree. Both of these situtations demand that you disclose the sexual orientation of the student to their parents.

In fact ANY case in which you find a student is going to go to hell when Jesus comes to wipe out sinners and liberals, you have to tell the parents so they can "take care of it" if you catch my drift.

In fact, regardless of whether this activist judge ultimately decides that this particular homosexual student had "her" (or whatever you call them) "privacy rights" violated or not, he's already gone too far in this ruling simply by declaring that a student should have any expectation of not having their parents told that they are a disgusting homosexual in ANY circumstance.

Posted by: Mr.GOP at Wed Dec 7 11:05:53 2005 (YAEN3)

6 Clearly, you are incapable of dealing with a serious issue in anything other than your troll persona. I had hoped there was a clever, intelligent, and thoughtful person behind the sarcasm. I guess not.

The issue is not one of "going to hell" or "making GOD hate them." It is one of legal rights and responsibilities, and of a clash of professional ethics. My religious beliefs have absolutely nothing to do with the question.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Wed Dec 7 11:53:17 2005 (6D516)

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