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Cunning Runt
Location: Taking a mulligan
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A little phone call from the principal
Link
Quote:
Disaffected feeling
A gay high school student sues Garden Grove Unified, citing discrimination after her refusal to stop kissing and hugging.
By FERMIN LEAL and NGUYEN HUY VU
The Orange County Register
Garden Grove - A gay high school student filed suit Wednesday against Garden Grove Unified School District, claiming she was suspended several times and forced to temporarily transfer because she refused to stop hugging and kissing her girlfriend on campus.
Charlene Nguon, a 17-year-old honor student, said Santiago High School Principal Ben Wolf discriminated against her and her girlfriend last school year because the couple was openly affectionate. Meanwhile, heterosexual couples who kissed went unpunished, she said.
District spokesman Alan Trudell said, "The only thing I can say is that this district doesn't engage in any discriminatory practices."
Wolf and other Garden Grove Unified officials, through Trudell, declined to comment on the lawsuit because staff had not yet reviewed it.
During a Los Angeles news conference organized by the American Civil Liberties Union, Nguon said, "I'm very stubborn and I don't like it when people try to stomp on my rights."
Nguon finished the last three months of the year at Bolsa Grande High, but is being allowed to return to Santiago for her senior year. The first day of classes is today [Thursday, September 8, 2005].
The Santa Ana resident and her girlfriend, Trang Nguyen, 16, allege that Wolf told them not to show affection toward each other after they began dating as juniors last year. Throughout the year, the two defied the order and continued to hug and kiss on campus despite suspensions rangin from one to five days, the suit says. Eventually, Wolf demanded that one of them transfer to another school, Nguon says in the suit.
Nguon's mother, Crystal Chhun, said Wednesday that she found out about her daughter's sexual orientation when Wolf called her into his office in December. He told her Nguon and her girlfriend were sitting with their arms around each other, talking with a heterosexual couple near the school parking lot.
"I don't care about that," Chhun said. "She is a good girl with a good report card."
The displays "were very tame: a quick hug or kiss goodbye in the parking lot or at the end of the lunch hour," said Elizabeth Brennan, a spokeswoman with the ACLU, which is representing Nguon.
Several parents contacted said they would prefer that public displays of affection by all students, regardless of their sexual orientation, be discouraged at school.
"I think school is a place for learning, but there a lot of times when kids are looking at other kids at school who they think are cute and hot," said Julienne Smith of Yorba Linda, author of "Food for Talk," a book on frank conversation at the dinner table.
"It's a natural thing and standard operating procedure for 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds to hold hands," she said. "I don't know how appropriate it is for couples to be hooking up on campus. It can certainly be a distraction. I think kissing is much more of going over the line because some people could be offended."
The Gay/Straight Alliance Network also joined in the suit, claiming district policies on displays of affection are not applied equally to gay and heterosexual students.
The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages and legal fees, as well as erasure of Nguon's disciplinary records and a guarantee that gay students will not be harassed.
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There's a LOT more I want to know about this case. For starters, I'd like to know who's telling the truth in regard to how equitably straights and gays are treated in regard to PDAs. Secondly, I'd like to know a little more about the alleged "outing." I assume the mother would ask the reason for a suspension; if the principal said, "Because your daughter is engaging in PDAs with Trang Nguyen," that's simply a factual accounting of the reason. If their displays were indeed public, I disagree that she was "outed."
Sounds like a money grab to me, but I'm sure I'll hear from people who think otherwise.
__________________
"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Margaret Thatcher
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