Stumbled on this story in my Twitter feed:
An Arkansas teenager and her mother are suing a private Christian high school over the treatment the daughter received when school officials learned she was pregnant.According to the lawsuit, officials at Trinity Christian School badgered the teen into admitting her pregnancy, then expelled her on the spot with only eleven days remaining in the school year. After telling the student (who is not named in public court documents) that she was being expelled, school officials escorted her to a Christian pregnancy crisis center, where she was administered a pregnancy test and given counseling. Staff at the crisis center then shared information about the student with the school.
At no point during their questioning of the student or the trip to the crisis center did school officials contact the student's mother.
The lawsuit charges race and gender discrimination as well as false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit claims that other students who were known by the school to have engaged in sexual activity were not expelled.
The part I'm having trouble swallowing... wait, scratch that. The principle called a minor into his office without a parent present, harassed her until she admitted the rumor was true, and then expelled her 11 days before school finished... then sent her to a CPC. The pregnancy center interviewed, counseled, and tested the minor and disseminated her information to the school employees.
Despite the fact that her pregnancy violated the school's code of conduct - which the girl and her parents signed on for when she enrolled - the school itself made some egregious errors in subjecting a minor to all of the above without parental consent. I hope the family gets every dollar out of the school that violated her civil rights. Additionally, if this case is won, the school will have to revamp its code of conduct as the clause that punishes sexual activity is only targeted at [pregnant] female students, and therefore gender-based discrimination.
One wonders if this will have an impact on other schools should the girl win her lawsuit...
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You also wonder if the guy she had sex with is a student at that school and, if so, if he is going to be expelled as well. Often, it is girls who get expelled for pregnancy, but their sexual partener does not.
Joan
This.
Huge, huge deal--and one of the biggest reasons cited why my extremely conservative Catholic university no longer enforces the "female students can be expelled if become pregnant" rule, even if it is technically on the books.
Another reason often given is that the rule forces many young women to consider abortion in order to not get into trouble, which then goes against the whole commitment to life deal of the Catholic Church.
I hope this court case goes well for the girl and her family, and the some changes are finally made to many schools' rules regarding pregnant students.
I certainly hope that that school pays as dearly as possible for this truly sick, bigoted, and totally unwarranted behaviour. It is absolutely appalling for a school to regard a student differently in any way based on their sexual activity, or whether or not they are pregnant.
However, this is a private school, and it wouldn't stay in business if the parents of its students weren't just as sick. I would NEVER put ANYONE in an environment where they are taught that sexuality is somehow negative. I would say that any parent who signs that code of conduct at the begining of the year is just as guilty as the staff.
That is really amazing...and not in a good way. I hope everything turns out good for the girl.
This comment has been deleted.
Oh, don't we all love America. First thought - sue them, get a lawyer. Bankrupt them (and who cares what *that* will do for the other students' education).
Seriously, though, aren't you going a bit overboard on this? I mean, "The principle (sic) called a minor into his office without a parent present" - come on, is that hanging offence?!
As for "race and gender discrimination" - well, is her lawyer saying that the girl's 'race' is relevant? Is the lawyer saying that a boy who was pregnant would have been treated differently? I'd love to see the lawyer argue that one!
I also adore the "Despite the fact that her pregnancy violated the school's code of conduct..." - so what if the girl broke her contract, let's sue anyway. Pull in the millions.
Greetings from sane Europe.
I agree that lawsuits are out of control. But if I were a parent, I would be pissed if my child was called into the principal's office for any major offense and I was not notified. Parents should be able to expect schools to contact them about their minor child's major rule infractions-certainly for something that gets the child expelled. Schools also should not be taking a child for a medical test with out the parent's approval. That is wrong and possibly a violation of the law.
I do not know about the racial aspect- I don't have enough information to judge, but the gender aspect is important. If the girl's sexual partener attends that school and isn't expelled, then the school is showing gender bias, saying only sexually active females will be dismissed. If a female becoming a parent/being sexually active is a reason expel her, then a male becoming a parent/being sexually active is a reason to expel him. Of course, we do not know if the male attends that school or if they know his identity.
While I don't think they have much of a case for her not being expelled, they may have a case against the pregnancy crisis center, as it likely violated HIPPA and treated a minor without parental consent. The school may be culpable in that lawsuit as well, since the school brought the girl to the CPC.
Joan
What is HIPPA? From what Wikipedia tells me, any suing would be on the grounds of keeping health information private. Again, 'wow' (low key).
I won't go on another rant, but, boy, could I!
This 'treating a minor without parental consent' thingy. Technically, was there any treatment? Politically, how can Femisinisting work itself up into an outrage about this and then call for minors to be able to get contraception 'without' parental consent? (Maybe this should be on its own thread.)
Anyway, when something is debated by lawyers, and the only arguments are legalistic, I usually conclude that there is not much of a moral case.
A parent DOES have the right to know if their child is being expelled. Also, being questioned about that kind of offense without a parent present seems just a bit... heavy handed. Also, did the STUDENT consent to the pregnancy test and counseling? I, as a 22 year old, would find it hard to stand up to several authority figures at once, as a high school student, I'd have found it impossible.
Coercion is not consent. I'd lay odds the girl had NO option to leave at any time. False imprisonment is a perfectly reasonable suit, unless it is shown that she had a free option to leave (by which I mean it was actually presented to her, rather than she could have said "no")
"Greetings from sane Europe"
What a completely ignorant, bigoted, and arrogant statement. All Europeans are sane and all Americans (I assume you're singling out U.S. citizens when you say Americans, excluding Mexicans and Canadians) are insane!
Good to know. Leave out that last sentence and your comment is actually relevant and worthwhile. But no, you felt compelled to inform us that you are a superior European. Well I don't feel compelled to judge all Europeans based on your absurd behavior.
I believe that parents should realize what sort of environment a Catholic school will have when they enroll their child. Clearly she violated the school's code of conduct. But the school violated some laws in their treatment of her. They escorted her to a pregnancy crisis center without parental consent, she was treated without parental consent. Recall that at this point she has already been expelled so the school's administration should have no jurisdiction over her.
Both the pregnancy crisis center and school administrators are culpable. I believe the girl should have been expelled, as per the code of conduct, and the school and crisis center deserve whatever lawsuit is coming to them.
Imagine that, a mixed outlook on a situation that requires scrutiny.
As a U.S. citizen I am, of course, astonished at my own mental capabilities.
Just a note- the school was Baptist, not Catholic. Catholic schools pull tons of shit, but this one isn't on them.
Joan
You're right. Sorry. It does say "Christian" up there and for some reason I read it "Catholic".
"What a completely ignorant, bigoted, and arrogant statement. All Europeans are sane and all Americans (I assume you're singling out U.S. citizens when you say Americans, excluding Mexicans and Canadians) are insane!"
Come on - cool it. In terms of use of the law, yes, the USA (since you ask) is insane, seen from the rest of the world. Ask an American lawyer and he will agree.
I guess you can always sue me if you disagree.
Oh you speak for the rest of the world?
No, I'm not going to cool it.
I'm sick of the "rest of the world" thinking they can judge three hundred million individuals as one big group of psychos or retards.
The fact that you insist on doing this tells me a lot about your character.
Being a citizen of another country, you probably have a pretty limited understanding of U.S. law. Your original comment suggested that is probably the case. Maybe you should take that into consideration.
It's pretty easy to make comments that are relevant and intelligent without presuming that you are superior to everyone in an entire country. Again, leave out all the insulting generalizations about "Americans" and your comment is fine.
What part of Europe are you in?
I'm pretty fucking sure if you have the courage to name your nationality I can find some pretty stupid legislative moves.
Logrus,
Leave the f*** out, if you may.
I'm sure that Switzerland has some pretty silly laws, but the awards that can be made are capped. So there is less incentive for lawyers and their clients to sue.
For info
Number of lawyers in the USA (300 million inhabitants): 1,143,358 by the end of 2007
Switzerland (7 million): 8 000
Japan (128 million): 22 000
Three times more lawyers in the USA than in Switzrland.
I'll let you calculate the figure for Japan. Maybe you'll draw some conclusions.
This is just ridiculous. Remember, you were asserting that U.S. citizens are all insane. And you're saying we're insane because a lot of people choose to become lawyers? And a lot of people choose to file lawsuits?
What exactly is your argument here? Our judicial system is the way it is because that is what we have deemed appropriate for our society.
Certainly people here have the right and the incentive to create frivolous lawsuits. Maybe some of those people are "insane" or less intelligent than the average person. But how is that relevant to the topic at hand?
And how does an intelligent person use that information to stereotype an entire culture? My assertion is that an intelligent person wouldn't do that.
Suing both the school and the pregnancy crisis center is more than reasonable in this situation.
"Oh, don't we all love America. First thought - sue them, get a lawyer"
You're god damn right that's the first thing I'm going to do if I'm that girl's parents. Both the school and crisis center stepped way out of line. What they did was absolutely unacceptable and they cannot get away with treating someone like that.
Lawsuits are one method for people to carry out justice. Maybe the school will end up bankrupt. What about all the other students? How will this affect them?
I guess their parents will find another school to send them; maybe they'll find a school that actually obeys the law and respects students and parents. Maybe they'll find a school whose administrators aren't under the delusion that they are dictators who have absolute control over their students.
I think many would prefer that. If this school goes bankrupt because of this family's lawsuit I don't think that would be a great loss.
Lumix,
Hello again.
No, I was not asserting that "U.S. citizens are all insane".
I said that seen from the perspective of Europe, the use of the law in the USA is, OK, 'strange'. There is not the reaction, in Europe, to first find a lawyer. For good or bad, that is a difference between the USA and Europe (I won't say the 'world' because you'll pounce on me).
I won't enter into a discussion on the American - oops, USA - judicial system. Others have commented on it (and some agree with me - shoot them too?!).
You overshoot; I never stereotyped a culture - I commented on the number of lawyers in the USA.
Back to your wish to sue the school. Why? It is a private school. Presumably, if you'd signed your daughter to the school, you agreed to its code of conduct. It seems odd to me that you'd sue *aftrwards* - if you disagree with its code, then go elsewhere.
Just one more comment: "If this school goes bankrupt because of this family's lawsuit I don't think that would be a great loss." Well, you might want to ask the other parents about that.
Cheers!
The point you're clearly missing here is that they're not just suing over the [in practice] discriminatory code of ethics, but the blatant overstepping of school authority in taking her to a medical facility, getting a procedure done, and disseminating that information to school employees WITHOUT the notification or permission of her parents.
Therein lies the issue.
Are you kidding me? Are you serious? This must be a joke.
Do you have ANY reading comprehension skills?
Yes, the student broke the school's code of conduct so she should be expelled.
IT'S NOT ABOUT THE EXPULSION.
They are suing the school over the ILLEGAL treatment of the student and if you read virtually any other comment on this thread you would understand that.
As for your xenophobic comments about the United States - yes, they were xenophobic, ignorant and for those reasons completely unacceptable.
You said, "Oh, don't we all love America. First thought - sue them, get a lawyer. Bankrupt them (and who cares what *that* will do for the other students' education)."
What exactly were you trying to convey with this other than contempt for every U.S. citizen?
If that wasn't your intent then you should really make an effort to learn how to write what you actually mean.
Don't try to pretend like all you did was comment on the number of lawyers in America.
You were using the number of lawyers in America to justify your comments about Americans being insane.
And YES. You did say that anyone who is not a citizen of Europe is insane.
When you say, "Greetings from sane Europe" that is what you are saying. I don't care how you try to spin it. This (among other things) is what makes me think that you lack reading comprehension skills.
Here's a tip: just apologize for making stupid arrogant comments because we've all been there before and it's typically no big deal. But trying to defend yourself or pretend like you never said it is just embarrassing.
Make a comment about the case at hand rather than attacking and judging an entire culture.
So you're basis for assuming the U.S. is more insane than Switzerland is that we have not adopted Tort reform?
Meanwhile you've adopted uniform accident coverage and completely removed the power of the individual to have her/his case heard by peers, negating the power of the people completely.
Or is it that you work for Nestle and are pissed that Nestle behaves in a manner abroad that would be illegal in it's native country?
As to using the number of lawyers to somehow infer the relative sanity of a nation: what is the ration of Cuckoo clock makers in our respective nations?
How about judging your national sanity by the fact that women didn't have universal franchise in your nation until 1990, and that was by judicial override? Yeah, that's an enlightened nation right there. Oh, is it unfair of me to judge your whole nation because one Canton was the yodeling version of redneck hillbillies? How about you doing a population breakdown on the number of frivolous lawsuits filed in the U.S. relative to total population while I calculate how significant a portion of your total population that Canton represents?
Meanwhile you have an admirable direct democracy, which is great! If you have a small and basically culturally uniform populace. And meanwhile the SVP gets bigger every day. A growing sentiment of nationalism and xenophobia, looks like your on your way to catching up to us.
Now am I saying that the U.S. is all great and perfect? NO WAY! But to come into a forum and, for no productive reason, infer than you're superior for some arbitrary basis is bullshit nationalism.
We have our culture in progress, as do you.
ftw, my friend, ftw!
HIPPA is a very strict medical privacy act- saying, in essence, that if a medical facility shares your information with anyone without your signed consent, it can be sued for violation of privacy. You don't want to mess with HIPPA.
A medical test is a form of medical care. 'Treatment' may be the wrong word, but it was medical care, given without parental consent. There is also the question of if the girl really consented to the care. Was she given a choice about taking the test?
And I do think there is a moral arguement- the school was exceeding its authority and acting in a way that could be harmful to the child; it sounds like they badgered her to 'confessing' her pregnancy, then took her to a medical clinic, a CPC, that likely fed the girl inaccurate information, like most CPCs do. That, to me, is immoral. But you may feel differently.
I will agree with you that law suits in this country are a bit out of control, but do you know what is far worse, and far more insane about this country? The fact that a school that teaches its students that sexuality is a negative thing as part of its official policy is even allowed to exist; not just by the state, but by the parents who are deciding where their children will go.
The code of conduct at this school is sick. Nothing would please me more than to see this traditionalist brainwashing facility go bankrupt, an if it takes a questionable law suit, or any other action, I say go for it. It will be for the benefit of the students who might otherwise be put into such an evil place. After all, we can pretty well assume that they terrorise all their student with traditionalist lies as badly as they did this girl. She just happens to be the one to have stood up to it.
Clay,
At least *someone* agrees with (part of) my argument. Quite refreshing.
When I said that Europe is sane(r), I meant 'with the use of lawsuits'.
It seems to me - speaking for myself - that an American's (yes, USA) first reaction to *slight* or perceived injustice is to reach for their lawyer.
That, err..., "insanity" does not mean that others do not exist.
My comment was not aimed at the school's actions - more at the girl's (or parents' or lawyer's) way of retaliating. It seemed to me (see, I'm hedging my language!), that the grounds on which the lawsuit is brought are pretty feeble stuff (IMHO).
Over here, in Good Ol' Yurp, such a lawsuit would not take off; such actions are simply not part of the culture.
That's all.
I won't comment on your wish to close a school and withdraw educational facilities. (If you asked, I just might!)
A start? "The code of conduct is sick." I don't know, but if the parents signed up for that school, then presumably they agreed to its code. Didn't they? You can work out the rest of the argument.
Cheers!
Please ask someone how sane Europe spent the centuries preceding 1945, at which point babysitters were assigned.
Ouch. I completely agree that smiley (or anyone) shouldn't judge the USA's citizens on the basis of the number of lawsuits in that country, but judging all of Europe based on WWII (at least I assume that's what you're referring to; apologies if not) is just as ridiculous. Especially since smiley was comparing the USA to Switzerland, which was as close as anyone got to neutral during that time.
Also, Europe is no more monolithic, sane or insane (can we say value judgement?!) than the USA. I'm British...and as different from Swiss as anyone.
Some people would say that some of our law was ridiculous too - British libel court, anyone?
Hippa is a royal headache of red tape and paper-work for people in the medical industry.
However, it is also a very specific set of rules for keeping patient information private; most of it is just common sense. HIPPA is what I consider to be "governing stupid." The rules that I had to learn in "HIPPA training" at my previous job were rules that only an idiot would have broken in the first place. Medical information (such as the results of a pregnancy test, and information divulged in counseling) can only be relayed to specific individuals (i.e. spouse/parents) with the patient's permission. Considering that even a lowly lab technician in clinical research who had no contact with any patients had to undergo HIPPA "training" and learn how not to violate a patient's privacy, I can damn well say that the CPC certainly should have known these rules.
As for the school not informing the parents, I think that taking the student off the school's premises for any reason without telling or getting permission from the parents is a huge violation. I had to bring home permission slips for a trip to the burger king down the street. The parents should have been called from the beginning with the accusation of an offense which would result in expulsion. Any trip to a CPC or any other place by the school should have been done with the parent's permission, or with the parent there.
Oops, this was supposed to be a reply to smiley.
Why didn't she claim to be a virgin? What would they say, that a virgin couldn't be pregnant?
So, let me get this straight.
1) The parents pay money to send their daughter to a private school that, as part of the admission process, requires them and her to sign an agreement saying (among other things) she'll be expelled if she engages in sexual conduct.
2) She has sex.
3) The school expels her.
4) Her parents sue the school for enforcing the agreement.
I have 0 sympathy for her parents. Sounds to me like they drummed up every possible type of discrimination they could find in the hope that at least one charge would stick, because they wanted the code of conduct to apply to other students, not their daughter.
Actually, I have some sympathy for her, since she got stuck with whackjob southern baptist parents. Also, there may be some merit to the issue of the PCC sharing the test results with the school, but since the parents mentioned everything BUT that in the lawsuit (and aren't suing the PCC, just the school), maybe not.
The issue isn't that she was expelled. Obviously she broke the code of conduct, the punishment for which was expulsion. Fine, expel her.
The problem arises when the school administrators take it upon themselves to expel her without notifying her parents.
Then they escort her to a pregnancy crisis center without parental consent. At this point, from what I understand, she has already been expelled so she isn't the school's responsibility.
That means they have no right to take her anywhere.
Then she is "administered a pregnancy test and given counseling."
Again, parental consent is absolutely necessary in this case - or it would be if she was still actually a student.
As I stated before, if she was expelled, she is no longer the school's responsibility and they have no legal right to escort her anywhere.
She deserves to be expelled because she broke the rules.
But the administrators of that school deserve whatever shit they're getting from the parents. They were completely out of line.
I'm wondering if the school authorities would be the same sort of people who'd argue for laws requiring parental notification in the case of abortion. If so, why let them subject to girl to all this without so much as a phonecall?
Disgusted.
I would just like to know who got her pregnant? Was he also a student at this school? Did he also violate his contract? I am tired of women having to be the ones to shoulder the responsibility of pregnancy alone most of the time.
I feel like we really need to address the fact, not that the girl was expelled for breaking a contract her family signed, but that the school felt entitled to REGULATE SEXUAL ACTIVITY BETWEEN STUDENTS.
We're seeing more outrage in this thread that someone called americans law suit happy than we are over the fact that there are schools in the United States that are trying to regulate reproductive rights/sexuality/whathaveyou. COMPLETELY out of bounds, baptist school or not. Sorry, but it's true.
Out of bounds according to who?
In response to Aleks:
That was funny. A Christian school really cannot claim a virgin cannot be pregnant!
To the rest of the panel:
The girl broke the school's code of conduct. The school was mostly out of line for dragging the girl to the crisis center. At the public schools in my hometown, kids can be expelled on the spot without prior notification to the parents, the parents are involved after the fact. I am sure the school would regulate the boys' sexual activity as much as the girls', if the boys could also carry visible evidence. Unfortunately, it is just much easier to target the pregnant ones (although I am not excusing it).
Please comrades, let's be careful with speaking out of both sides of our mouths. If we are going to fight for teenagers to have the right to seek pregnancy and reproductive health services without parental consent, please do not demonize the crisis center for treating the girl without her parents' permission. They were completely within their right, and we do not want to jeopardize that already fragile privilege. It is the school's job to call the parents with notification of the child's expulsion, and it is the child's job to explain to her family the reason. Do not blame the crisis center, they did what we would have wanted them to do under different circumstances.
And, I never really considered Feministing as a forum for insulting one another's cultures and countries. That was probably the most ridiculous waste of time and space I have ever read.
Let's be clear: CPCs are a bad place for a big majority of women as they hand out fallacious information about abortion and other reproductive health issues. CPCs are demonized for a reason.
Secondly, this wasn't about the girl's choice to get treatment without the permission of her parents (which, yes, we should be championing). This was the choice of the school's administration to have a medical procedure done on a minor in order to validate the girl's expulsion. Let's not obfuscate the two situations. I highly doubt the girl went to the center uncoerced and willingly to get a test done that would have her kicked out of school 11 days before it was finished.
If they found out about the girl's pregnancy through gossip, then they could surely find out about her partener through gossip and question him as well (if he is a student at that school as well), if they so desired. But often, having 'caught' the girl, schools lose intrest in the boy.
And Chelsea made a great point- if the girl had willingly, on her own, sought medical attention, that is one thing. When a school or other authority figure takes on a parental role when the child in question has parents, then takes that child to a place where she is unlikly to get honest information and that place violates the child's right to medical provacy- well, that is a whole other thing entirely.
Joan