Probably if a girl was getting suspended for spending all her time making out with her boyfriend the school would explain it as such to the parents?

It's a weird case, though, no question. I just can't see any villains here, except perhaps an overzealous principal? (Suspensions for too many makeout sessions?)

Also, hint: using the phrase "just asking" after a pointed rhetorical question makes it doubly irritating.

In answer to Ms. Mieszkowski's question...no, this girl was clearly singled out because of her sexuality. Read this ACLU press release.

Throughout the 2004-2005 school year Santiago High School Principal Ben Wolf had repeatedly singled Nguon out for discipline - including a one-week suspension - for displaying affection with her girlfriend. Heterosexual students are routinely allowed to hold hands, hug, and kiss on campus. Wolf ultimately told Nguon that either she or her girlfriend had to leave the high school, which Nguon reluctantly did halfway during the spring semester of her junior year.

http://aclu.org/lgbt/youth/22082prs20051201.html

My guess is the school district will settle before it goes to trial. If the administration punished all equally, including heterosexual couples, there would be no legal issue.

It's no business whether she was making out with a boyfriend or girlfriend. While the school may have a policy against PDA amongst the student body, this seems to be a pretty clear-cut case of singling her out for AdditionalPunishment.

And at what risk/cost to the girl? If her mom had reacted to the news violently and taken it out on her daughter, the principal could be up on actual criminal charges rather than just facing a civil suit.

This guy should be severely disciplined if not fired. Unfortunately, the Teacher's Union will probably pull out the stops to make sure he can weasel his way out of the mess he's made for himself and the school.

Kudos to the mom for reacting the way she did and standing up for her daughter.

The issue of the principal singling out homosexual vs heterosexual is clearly a problem. But assume for the moment that there was consistent enforcement. Mieszkowski asks, "Does this same principal notify parents that their children are heterosexual every time boys and girls are caught making out next to the lockers, too?" Well, does this precedent say that doing so would be illegal?

When I was in high school, a fellow student hanged himself days after the school year ended, knowing that the report card that would shortly be sent to his parents contained a "D". The "A" student feared a horrible retribution. I used to work in an after-school program for young homeless children. We were forced to end the practice of sending home certificates with stickers to mark the areas students were doing well in, because we had cases of students being beaten for not having stickers in all areas. Many parents might react violently if they learned their child were using drugs at school.

The judge in this case cited the possibility of similar dire outcomes of "outing" a child to their parents. So, at some point will it be illegal for principals to send home report cards? Or explain other causes for suspension, like drug use? As sensitive an issue as sexual orientation is, I am having a very, very hard time understanding how anything that a student does at school, especially openly and publicly, must by law be kept from parents.

PS: Kudos to the mother, who sounds amazingly supportive of her daughter.

Cynthia, handing out report cards is the purpose of education; drug use is illegal. Monitoring students' love lives has no educational or legal purpose. It's patently absurd to say that if the school has no business outing students, it has no business grading them.

I say that only knowing the details that I have read in the media. But from what I understand the principal is guilty of a) being a jerk and worse b) harrassing a student based on her sexuality. The first is, unfortunately, not punishable by law and the second, I assume, is not either (but should be) since the ACLU has chosen this backdoor method to fight back against the school district and the princpal.

I am a raving gay rights proponent and it bodes ill for this case when I find myself agreeing with the conservative groups that are trucked out for tit for tat comment. I agree with Cynthia (I think that's who wrote the letter) that this is setting an unfortunate precedent. If a student is guilty of PDA against school regulations what is the principal supposed to do? If that case wins then the principal can't call home about misbehaving straight students either presumably, and it sets up all kinds of potential lawsuits against schools and teachers and othe principals who have no idea what they're getting themselves into. My partner is a school teacher, and I have watched how careful she is in all her dealings with students because of fear of legal reprisal from parents. Why can't this principal get canned for harrassing a student, for the real crime, instead of for a made up crime?

The gay rights movement is on shaky ground right now and it doesn't need cases like this that are going to get a lot more attention than other, more deserving ones.

Perhaps you didn't read the whole article, but the student was suspended for PDA at school, which is against the school's rules. (Drug use is illegal--as you pointed out--so it is not a great analogy, I just picked it as something else that's presumably against school rules.) As other posters have pointed out, the lawsuit should be about the unequal and discriminatory enforcement of the PDA rule, since it has not been enforced with straight couples. Instead, the lawsuit is about the fact that the principal told the parents the reason their daughter was being suspended (PDA with fellow student X). (This is all based on what I've read in the media.) In my opinion, a lawsuit about the sharing of information with parents, because they might react badly, seems like it sets a bad precedent. If anything, there needs to be more communication between schools and parents, not less.

Also, you seemed to imply that information that parents are entitled to is limited to academics (ie grades). I strongly disagree. Did you notice if my child ate her lunch today? What is my child's general demeanor in the classroom? Out of the classroom? Does my child have any friends? Who are they? Anything about the group dynamic that I should know about? What was my child wearing today? (some change after they get to school) None of these questions are directly related to academics, but could be more broadly related to the child's education, and in any case as a parent I should be entitled to ask.