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Loading ...Calif. high court OKs lesbian students expulsion
05.04.2009 8:16pm EDT
(Riverside, California) The California Supreme Court will let stand an appeals court ruling that a Lutheran school was within its rights when it expelled two students for allegedly being lesbians.
The case began in 2005 after the school’s principal, Gregory Bork, called the girls into his office and grilled them on their sexual orientation. One girl was allegedly coerced to say she loved the other.The next day, the suit said, Bork told the girls’ parents they could not stay at the school with “those feelings.” In a Sept. 12, 2005 letter to the parents, Bork acknowledged officials had seen no physical contact between the girls but said their friendship was “uncharacteristic of normal girl relationships and more characteristic of a lesbian one.”
The girls’ attorney argued that the 142-student school in Wildomar was bound to comply with state civil rights laws because it functions as a business by collecting tuition and falls under the California civil-rights law that prohibits LGBT discrimination.
The school is owned by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, the nation’s third-largest Lutheran church body. The California Lutheran High School Association, comprising three dozen churches and religious schools, operates the campus.
The school argued that it is exempt from the rights law because it is run by a religious institution and does not accept state funding.
In 2008, a Riverside County Superior Court judge dismissed the case, ruling that was no legal basis for the girls’ claim that the school falls under the law.
The case was appealed and last January the 4th District Court of Appeal upheld the lower court ruling.
Attorneys for the girls appealed to the California Supreme Court which declined to hear the case. The decision allows the earlier rulings to stand.
@Shawn: Do you really think these girls CHOSE to go to this school? It was a high school, and I know when I was that age I had no say in what school I attended. It was a decision left solely up to my parents. Fortunately I was in a public school, so I had no similar issues.
I would also be willing to bet that the so called “lesbian behavior” purported by the principal was news to these girls’ parents. All in all, I think it was an appropriate decision by the courts. Doesn’t mean I agree with the descrimination, however I think ruling oppositely would have done more harm than good for our cause as a whole.
California – not so liberal after all hey!!!!!! California is full of bloody, hate crimes, bigots and homophobes!!! I REPEAT VERMONT IS THE MOST LIBERAL, FOLLOWOLLED BY CONNECTICUT AND THEN MASSACUSETTS!!!
Note the distinction. Several of you are angry because the school acted on internal bias. Well, the girls weren’t state-ordered to be there. Kids have to be in school; parents are obliged to keep them in school, but these parents were pigheaded and wrong.
How about this argument. You have a girl whose parents think they’ll control her by sending her to a religious school. The girl has to go to A school, but the parents can choose WHICH school. At this point, the argument might be whether or not the school could sue the parents for the administrative costs of expulsion–if they knew their daughter was a dykeling, then they engaged in fraud. They knew the school’s standards, and they’re over 18, so they can be held liable for violating a contract.
What if you had a school for gay kids, and a well-meaning couple placed their kid their on the errant assumption that he was gay. He was chasing every girl on the block, even got one pregnant just before he turned fifteen, so you send him to a gay school to put a leash on his unit? Equally inappropriate, but the other version–using school to “de-gay” your kid–happens ALL THE TIME. I don’t blame the schools, because you better bet they put their standards up front. That’s where they make their money. I blame the parents who don’t wanna accept reality. Most of all, it’s unfair to the kids who get put in these guinea-pig situations, but that idea seems to be a distant afterthought.
Nicely said, drewski.
And I agree with the others who have said that this was a good battle to “lose.” Now when the CC’s get bent out of shape about having to act against their religious views, we can point to this and say “nice try.”
I think many of you are missing the point…
I’ve read many opinions that this was a good battle for us to lose.
However, I don’t see it as our battle.
There was no evidence the girls were gay. This isn’t about them kicking out gay students, but two girls who just happened to be very close friends, and upon the coerced word of one that she loved the other.
This is absurd.
While it might benefit our issue in a small way (and I do mean small. If the CASC overturns Prop 8, nobody who voted against us will look at this case and say, ‘well we won the case where the girls who seemed to one individual to be gay were kicked out’)
The title of this piece is that the court okay’s lesbian expulsion. What if they weren’t lesbians? Why should the school or 365gay.com be allowed to label them something they very possibly were not?
The ruling should have reinstated the girls pending any proof their relationship was a sexual one. Minus that it is an injustice. And minus that, it wasn’t our fight..
Until this moron has real proof he should not be able to expel the girls. So this bigot can just claim that any student he doesn’t like is gay and get rid of then at will. What an asshole!
Private clubs can do as they please and allow anyone they want in their ranks for whatever reason without excuse…..but, if the Lutheran school is getting any kind of federal funding or tax privileges of any kind they should not be allowed total autonomy. This is exactly the kind of thing that was happening to blacks before the Civil Rights movement. It’s another example of why Gays must have civil rights.
i live in new orleans and our public schools are beyond bad so the only real choice for educating children is private or parochial school. i attended a private catholic school for 14 years. you know they have the right to discriminate when you walk in the door. it doesn’t make it right but you know what you are up against.
Being “tax exempt” is a form of “state fudning”. If they want to discriminate – FINE – but they should have to pay full taxes! No other group of people would tolerate this treatment. Lord, save us from all the cults that have been created in your name!
I don’t get it. I really don’t. This makes no sense to me whatsoever. This is absolutely terrible.
Reminds me of a book title I once saw -”Rescuing Christ from the Christians”. Seems appropriate these days.
This is a fair ruling. I support the Lutheran church’s right to freely associate and teach their faith. I just want them and other religious groups out of civil marriage. By insisting on extremes, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Let Lutherans hate whomever they want. Let’s not make e-Harmony help gay people date when they specialize in christian dating. Our foes are right to be up in arms about this.
While I sympathize with those who assert that this is not “our” issue, and those who are hoping that this ruling will “prove” the state won’t interfere with churches and church-run organizations, count me among those who are VERY troubled by the witch-hunt carried out by the school. Since it is nearly impossible to prove a negative, the accusation of lesbianism – once it is made – becomes fact. Seems to me Arthur Miller wrote a reasonably successful play about that process, some while ago (you’d have to substitute “witch” for “lesbian” of course). To quote Jesus himself “the Sabbath was made for people; not people for the Sabbath”: who CARES about freedoms of speech and association if all they are good for is to embolden bigots? Try to imagine the outcry when I eject someone from my gay bar (I don’t own one, by the way) for wearing a cross around his neck. All of you first-amendment heroes will back me in court, right?
This is actually a blessing for the girls. I had to leave my Catholic HS because of similar circumstances. Going to a public school where there was a more supportive environment was probably one of the best things that happened to me.
Shame on the high court as well as the school,this kind of discrimination has no place in today’s world.