Attorney Sees Pattern in Pro-Homosexual Lawsuits Against Schools
by Jim Brown and Jody Brown
September 15, 2005
(AgapePress) - A 17-year-old lesbian student in California has sued the Garden Grove Unified School District in Orange County, alleging she was unfairly disciplined for hugging and kissing her girlfriend on campus. But one pro-family attorney views the suit as an attempt at social engineering through student activism.
The lesbian student, who is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, claims her behavior did not violate the school's student handbook. According to an ACLU press release, Charlene Nguon was told by Santiago High School principal Ben Wolf that either she or her girlfriend would have to leave the school at the end of her junior year and attend a neighboring school. She was also suspended for a week, says the ACLU, and an invitation to her to join the National Honor Society was rescinded.
Nguon says she does not understand why she and her girlfriend were not allowed to be affectionate on campus while other couples are. She asserts that "most other students" at Santiago High are "accepting and tolerant of gay students," but that the administration is not. "We were singled out and disciplined because we are lesbians," she says.
The ACLU lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Santa Ana on behalf of Nguon and the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, seeks to clear any discipline from the student's record and to create a district-wide policy and guidelines ensuring equal treatment of homosexual students.
Lawsuits Indicative of a Trend
Scott Lively is a Christian attorney in nearby Temecula. He says he has noticed a trend during his years of following lawsuits filed by homosexual students against schools. The trend, he says, shows that the students typically set up schools for litigation by intentionally behaving provocatively on campus. This, Lively contends, creates a no-lose situation for the homosexual students.
"They either win and usually get a settlement from the school," the attorney says, "or even if the gay and lesbian students don't win, they create a lot of pain for the school officials who have to deal with the lawsuit." According to Lively, such cases rarely ever make it to trial because schools will "cave in and give ... a fairly sizable award." He adds that "there's nothing schools fear more than litigation."
In a very real sense, he says, the homosexual students are "setting up" the school. "They'll file a complaint with the school saying that they're being harassed, somebody's calling them names, or whatever; they'll make several complaints," he explains. "Then they'll file a lawsuit alleging that the school is not doing enough to protect the gay and lesbian students from harassment."
Lively says when homosexual students file such lawsuits, schools are put in a no-win situation and often eventually adopt a "sexual orientation" non-discrimination policy. In order to win the Garden Grove case, says the attorney, the school district must show it has uniformly enforced a policy against public displays of affection.
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