High School Romance Meets the Law
[Guest post by DRJ]
NK has an interesting post at his website that deals with student privacy issues: Are High School Romances Protected By The Constitution?
“The ACLU claims that a Memphis, Tennessee high school principal, who posted the names of dating student couples in her school, opposite-sex and same-sex, violated the students’ constitutional rights to equal protection, freedom of expression and association, due process and privacy. She even went so far as to call and tell the mother of one of the same-sex dating boys.”
Click the link for NK’s answer.
This seems pretty gossipy — have principals always been this nosy? The high school is interesting, though. Hollis F. Price Middle College High School is a collaborative effort with LeMoyne Owen College where students can earn a high school diploma and two years of college credit.
— DRJ
They’re not going far enough. they should find out who is having sex (get search warrants and look for semen stains on the underage girls’ clothes and underwear) and then arrest the girl and the sperm donor for statutorily raping each other.
What, you don’t think rape is a serious crime? You don’t want to see these rapists prosecuted? What kind of a pro-child rape pervert are you? And you call yourself a conservative.
Daryl Herbert (4ecd4c) — 5/2/2008 @ 7:33 pmGrow up, Herbert. The issue is the claim of a constitutional violation by the ACLU – and once again, the ACLU is more interested in inventing fantasy “rights” than in actually protecting real ones. The ACLU has done more to turn constitutional rights in a circus and joke than anyone else in history.
SPQR (26be8b) — 5/2/2008 @ 8:26 pmIf Educators were spending their time actually educating students, they wouldn’t have time to involve themselves in this foolishness.
Another Drew (8018ee) — 5/2/2008 @ 9:33 pmI’m sure that all of the students under her care are 4.0 and do not require additional mentoring.
Actually Another Drew, you might be surprised to learn that as schools fail to educate their students, school administrators seem to find more time for such foolishness.
SPQR (26be8b) — 5/2/2008 @ 10:44 pmwow, nk thinks it’s ok for the principal to out a gay kid to his mother. i’ll be rooting for the kids in this lawsuit. sure hope the kids don’t act on the old street slogan “snitches get stitches”.
assistant devil's advocate (881cab) — 5/2/2008 @ 10:49 pmGuess what, ADA. That’s not what NK wrote at all. You’ve intentionally misrepresented his comments.
SPQR (26be8b) — 5/2/2008 @ 11:09 pmWhoops, please ignore my last.
SPQR (26be8b) — 5/2/2008 @ 11:12 pmit’s no great loss to you if a gay kid gets harrassed by bullies, murdered by one (oxnard, california, a few months back) or commits suicide on account of being outed, huh? authentic conservatives believe that the government has no business attending to our romantic liaisons.
assistant devil's advocate (881cab) — 5/2/2008 @ 11:19 pmwow, nk thinks it’s ok for the principal to out a gay kid to his mother.
Well, why isn’t it?
The principal was in loco parentis — like a baby sitter. She has no duty nor right not to communicate any relevant, or even irrelevant, information about him to his parents.
And as for him being a “gay kid”, I do not characterize him like that although the article I linked to does.
nk (13d473) — 5/3/2008 @ 12:05 amit’s no great loss to you if a gay kid gets harrassed by bullies, murdered by one (oxnard, california, a few months back) or commits suicide on account of being outed, huh?
Where did that come from?
authentic conservatives believe that the government has no business attending to our romantic liaisons.
I don’t know about “authentic conservatives” but that’s the question.
nk (13d473) — 5/3/2008 @ 12:17 amFrom my reading of the article, the principal listed those couples engaging in public acts of affection, so how does one ‘out’ someone who by their own public actions has identified him or herself as X or Y? If someone doesn’t want to have their romantic interests, whether of a heterosexual or homosexual nature, disclosed to their mother or the school bully, all they have to do is keep their hands to themselves when in public.
stevesturm (f8b3ed) — 5/3/2008 @ 5:52 amDRJ aske:
Some have and some haven’t. Thing is, there must ba a hundred thousand high school principals out there, and there’s no way that they’ll all have the same standards or behave the same way.
Dana R Pico (3e4784) — 5/3/2008 @ 6:39 amin loco parentis, huh nk? ok, it’s time for your 15-year old daughter’s cherry check. i’m her principal, see, and it’s my business to know if she’s ever had sex, so i’m assigning our lady gym teacher, ms. bulldyke, to examine your daughter’s genitals. the results will be published in a school bulletin for all students to read. hey, you’re on record as supporting this, so don’t go all whiny on me now.
assistant devil's advocate (393fee) — 5/3/2008 @ 7:58 amAnother misrepresentation of nk’s writing. He explicitly stated:
Steverino (6772c8) — 5/3/2008 @ 8:16 amSPQR, #4…
Well, really, I’m not shocked – just appalled at the mis-placed priorities within the Ed Community.
This indicates the same abdication of responsiblity by the Eds as we see in legislativer bodies at all levels of gov’t; and emphasis on the irrelevant, because they have no idea of how to deal with the actual problems facing them (or those ways are non-PC, and, of course, verboten).
Another Drew (8018ee) — 5/3/2008 @ 8:25 am“The ACLU has done more to turn constitutional rights in a circus and joke than anyone else in history.”
Seems like a serious issue. It would be simpler if people would just stop the gay hate though.
“From my reading of the article, the principal listed those couples engaging in public acts of affection, so how does one ‘out’ someone who by their own public actions has identified him or herself as X or Y?”
Or, if they’re engaging in PDA, why does there need to be a list? But it is possible that someone shares their sexual preference with some people but not others.
stef (8a983a) — 5/3/2008 @ 8:47 amada #13,
Did you actually read my post?
nk (13d473) — 5/3/2008 @ 9:54 amHere you go, in case you have trouble reading Blogger pages. I wroted:
“It seems to me that outing the kid to his mother was ok. Posting the list so the whole school knew about it was not. Although it is hard to believe that the principal knew more about “who is dating who” than the student body already did, you don’t cavalierly reveal confidential information about minors to the whole world when you are in a position of trust and authority over them. I’ll even go further. Adults do not gossip about children.
But a constitutional violation? It’s a big stretch. This is a simple case of in loco parentis where the principal proved herself unworthy and untrustworthy to be in parentis.”
nk (13d473) — 5/3/2008 @ 10:00 ami wroted…
if your blog is as funny as those two words, i’m gonna have to check it more often.
i don’t have any problem reading, chief. your problem is that once you designated me in loco parentis for your daughter, i gained the right to examine her and publish the findings to anyone i see fit. i’ll let you take back that designation if you wish, i encourage you to do that.
the children don’t need to show a constitutional violation to win in court. there’s plenty of common law to help them: invasion of privacy, false light, intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation if the principal gets a disclosure wrong. one or two six-figure judgments ought to shape up that school district pretty good.
assistant devil's advocate (393fee) — 5/3/2008 @ 10:18 amyour problem is that once you designated me in loco parentis for your daughter, i gained the right to examine her and publish the findings to anyone i see fit.
In what jurisdiction? I know the law of in loco parentis in mine and it does not extend to wanton and willful conduct. And there are any number of statutes relating to the confidentiality of information about minors.
But to bring the conversation back to reality, the ACLU’s biggest weapon is the threat of Title VII attorneys’ fees which it mostly could not get for state claims. I suspect that’s why the federal ones.
And yes, I think you would mostly like my blogs but please read my Terms of Use. 😉
nk (1e7806) — 5/3/2008 @ 11:41 amAs usial the ATHEISTS.COMMUNISTS. and LAWYERS.UNDERGROUND. simply uses the constitution to suit their ulterior plans and make the USA into a socialists nation STAMP OUT THE ACLU
krazy kagu (86b5c2) — 5/4/2008 @ 11:32 amyeah.the socialism of leaving teh ghey alone.
stef (b7ee98) — 5/4/2008 @ 12:59 pmThis post is very good and provide inside picture of high schools. High schools are student’s companion in most crucial phase of their life.
Jack209 (557b9c) — 5/5/2008 @ 10:30 pmIn case any admin types missed it, that was driveby spam.
aphrael (db0b5a) — 5/5/2008 @ 10:53 pm