Heterosexual Girl Files Gay Rights Lawsuit
The Northwest Florida Daily News reports that in Florida, the Holmes County School Board is being sued over gay and lesbian rights issues. Surprisingly enough, the student who has filed the lawsuit against the school board is a heterosexual girl who says that her school and the principal have violated her right to free speech and prevented her from peacefully supporting gay rights.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is representing Heather Gillman, a 16-year-old high school junior, in her federal lawsuit against the school board and Leon Davis, her principal at Ponce de Leon High School. Although she was not suspended, Gillman alleges in her lawsuit that Davis suspended several other students because they expressed their support for the fair treatment of gays and lesbians. The students began their public show of support for gay and lesbian rights after Davis allegedly made some discriminatory remarks about gay people to a lesbian student.
According to a news report by the Northwest Florida Daily News, Gillman has a cousin that also attends Ponce de Leon High School who is a lesbian. Gillman's lawyer, Benjamin Stevenson of the ACLU, has identified the cousin only as "Jane Doe" in the lawsuit and alleges that Doe complained to Davis that other students were harassing her on September 7, 2007.
What happened next, according to the lawsuit, was pretty incredible, considering that this conversation allegedly took place in 2007, rather than back in 1950. Gillman claims that Davis told Doe that she should not be gay, should not tell people that she is gay and that "gay pride" was a disgrace to the high school.
The lawyer for the Holmes County School Board says that there is not a policy in place that prohibits pro-gay speech at the school, nor are pro-gay clothing or symbols specifically prohibited by any school board policy. The laywers says that the school board policy does prohibit any clothing or symbols that may be disruptive to other students and the learning environment.
Gillman's complaint says that after Davis' discriminatory comments to Doe, he suspended several students because they expressed their support for the fair treatment of gays and lesbians. After those suspensions, Gillman wore a rainbow belt and shirt with the message "I support gays" at school for three days but was not suspended.
The school board says that Gillman was not suspended because she was not disruptive. However, Stevenson says that the school administrators tend to put a "disruptive" label on anything that they do not like as an excuse to discipline students and this practice is a clear violation of the students' constitutional rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that students are entitled to the right of free speech under the First Amendment while they are at school.