"Cowpie High" the Focus of Two Gay Rights Cases

by emptywheel

I graduated from a high school that was derisively called (on account of its inland location, its bleak suburban culture, and the town's still-active rodeo) "Cowpie High." Having moved there midway through high school from the New York City suburbs, I found it to be a terribly conservative, sifling place.  Which makes it interesting that Poway High is now the center of two gay rights cases.

The case that MIGHT have legal implications for schools outside of "Cowpie" itself is Harper v. Poway Unified School District.

The dispute erupted after April 21 [2004], when some students at the school marked a "Day of Silence" in support of the rights of gays and lesbians.

Chase, who goes by his middle name, went to school that day wearing masking tape on the T-shirt with the words "I Will Not Accept What God Has Condemned" on the front and "Homosexuality Is Shameful, Romans 1:27" on the back.

The next day, he changed the wording on the front slightly to "Be Ashamed, Our School Embraced What God Condemned."

A teacher told him to take off the shirt because it was in violation of the school's dress code. Chase refused, and was sent to the school office, where he spent the rest of the day.

Chase said a vice principal told him to "leave his faith in the car" when he comes to school. The vice principal denies making that statement.

School officials said they had to pull Chase out of class because the language on his shirt was "offensive" and they were worried about violence in light of skirmishes between students during the Day of Silence the year before.

An appeal on the case was heard early this week in the 9th Circuit Court. Although the school district's lawyer didn't argue the case very well, he appeared to be arguing that, because there had been prior anti-gay violence tied to tolerance events, the school had reason to believe the shirt would create a dangerous learning environment.

What makes the case slightly more interesting, however, is that two gay students just won a lawsuit against the district because it failed to offer them a safe learning environment.

A San Diego Superior Court jury found yesterday that two former Poway High School students were harassed by their classmates because they are homosexual and that the school district failed to address the situation immediately and appropriately.

After deliberating about a week, the jury determined that the harassment effectively deprived Joseph Ramelli and Megan Donovan of the same access to the educational opportunities and benefits that other students enjoy.

While I doubt this lawsuit can directly impact the 9th Circuit appeal, it certainly does illustrate that Poway High has a compelling interest in  providing a tolerant environment for gay students at the school.

I have no idea whether these two cases will have any impact outside of Poway (although if they succeed in making Poway itself a little less bleak--for everyone--all the better). Hell, I don't even know how the 9th Circuit will rule. But the two cases do seem to provide a interesting confluence of events that might provide a legal precedent for placing limitations on speech to provide a safe learning environment for gay students. Anyway, I'd love to hear what the lawyers in the crowd have to say...

Comments

[emptywheel]

I have to say this for Cowpie High. Simply observing the Day of Silence is a hell of a lot more progressive than it was when I was there. Back then, it was almost the perfect caricature of the evilness that high school students and administrators inflict on other human beings.

[ogre]

Didn't attend, and haven't actually lived in Poway. I've friends that have, and do. I've lived in Ramona (you think Poway... never mind) and Vista.

It's a great case. It pits free speech issues against the safe learning environment stuff.

I'll admit that I tend to lean towards free speech, even when it hurts and offends. But that's my personal bias. Given the courts decisions about student free speech rights in schools, I expect that the courts will rule for the school.

And I can't say I'm sorry if they do.

Color me schizophrenic.

[emptywheel]

Egads, you're right, Ramona is worse than Cowpie. Vista, at least, has (had?) a great football team. Good thing I was a basketball fan.

I'm somewhat worried that the court will rule against the school district. Otherwise why would it have gotten to appeal, I wonder. If it rules against the school district, you're in a position where schools are liable for providing a safe school environment, but can't do what they need to to make sure they're safe. And I also worry that if the school loses in the liberal 9th circuit, then we will have lost about the only opportunity to establish precedent that gay rights deserves the same protection as race.

[ogre]

"we will have lost about the only opportunity to establish precedent that gay rights deserves the same protection as race"

Amen.

It's all about public persecution of Christians and Christianity.

(hand on a sec, the vertigo is killing me from my eyes rolling so hard).

We really ought to pull together a S.D. Co. gathering. There are certainly enough of us....

[Kagro X]

Courtroom coverage of this case was carried on C-SPAN2 this week. I thought that was really interesting. We need more C-SPAN channels, and more C-SPAN coverage of court proceedings.

[emptywheel]

Yeah, I stumbled on it after the Brown vote yesterday (that little CSPAN addiction I've been trying to break). I was so shocked at the thought that Poway was actually disciplining someone for gay-bashing I watched the whole hearing.

[Kagro X]

You were, then, watching a leading conservative candidate for Supreme Court elevation -- at least when we get out of Bizarro World -- in Judge Alex Kozinski. Which is why we need more courtroom coverage on TV. So we actually have some clue what we're dealing with when the time comes.

[donna]

I have one son who graduated from Poway High, one still there. Yes, the tolerance and learning environment are getting somewhat better.

I put my kids into public school partly to learn to be tolerant and decent to people who were different from themselves. Unfortunately the problem with Poway is although there is some diversity, it's mostly upper middle class white kids. And incredibly Republican these days. While the district as a whole is good at college prep, it isn't too great at handling diversity.

My younger son just said that he thinks the case is bullshit, and that the school environment is pretty tolerant, but the older son thinks it was a good case. I don't know the particulars myself. But it's interesting that even with just a couple of years between my boys, it's obvious the environment has changed.

And I would LOVE to do a local area get together - there are some great bloggers in SD County.

[emptywheel]

Well, if there is SOME diversity, it's a damn sight better then when I went there a few decades ago, when there was none.

But it was all republicans back then, too (including my family).

[emptywheel]

Kozinski was actually fairly interesting to watch. Too bad we're in bizarro world and we get Brown instead. Is Kozinski the 9th Circuit judge, btw, who is a totally obsessive skiier?

[Kagro X]

As it turns out, Kozinski is an avid snowboarder, which is something I didn't know until you asked, and I turned for answers to the most excellent Underneath Their Robes, the weblog written by "Article Three Groupie," or A3G, as she's known. Kozinski receives special attention there, and if you were looking for some distinctive decorative wall hangings, you can even download a PDF of an October 1996 article in Snow Country Magazine featuring an action photo spread of Kozinski on the slopes, plus much, much more!

[emptywheel]

Hmm, Kozinski has moved onto snowboarding?

Turns out a college roommate clerked with him. She's a consummate liar (boy, the more I talk about my college experience the more depraved it seems), which is good, because she had to lie through her teeth about her skiing prowess to get the job. Not sure how she managed to acquire some skill before she was actually forced to hit the slopes, but she seems to have pulled it off and moved onto her own illustrious law career.

[Brian Ellenberger]

Hmm, so free speech should now be supressed if you don't like the viewpoint? Whatever happened to "freedom to dissent"? More of "free speech for me, not for thee"...

Sad day in America