No discrimination found by school against SR girl
By LORI A. CARTER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A Sonoma County judge ruled Tuesday against a Mormon girl and her parents who sued the Santa Rosa school district, claiming they were discriminated against for their religious beliefs after the girl was disciplined for saying “That’s so gay” in class.
The 20-page tentative ruling will become permanent unless either side challenges it within 10 days, Judge Elaine Rushing said.
Rushing ruled Elden and Kathy Rice and their daughter Rebekah failed to prove discrimination in four incidents at Maria Carrillo High School beginning in 2002 when Rebekah was a freshman.They said Rebekah was targeted by teachers and other students and selectively disciplined because of the family’s Mormon beliefs.
The parents sued after Rebekah received a written reprimand for saying “That’s so gay” in class. During a trial in February, she testified she was responding to students who were teasing her about her religion.
The district and its staff denied the Rices’ claims, saying they conducted an investigation into the complaints and concluded they were unfounded.
Rebekah Rice, now 18 and a student at Santa Rosa Junior College, testified during the nine-day trial that she was a 15-year-old freshman when she responded with the phrase to her friends’ teasing. She testified she never had been warned that the phrase was considered offensive and that she didn’t mean it in a way that was demeaning to homosexuals.
The Rice family sought unspecified monetary damages and removal of the discipline report from Rebekah’s school file. The suit named the district, Maria Carrillo Principal Mark Klick, then-Assistant Principal Kass Mason and teacher Claudine Gans-Rugebregt.
“I’m happy my clients have been vindicated,” said attorney Mark Peters, who represented the district and school staff. “Public schools are special places that have to protect everyone’s rights, and that’s not always easy.”
The Rices’ attorney, Clark Summers of Santa Rosa, was unavailable for comment after the ruling was issued Tuesday afternoon. The Rices couldn’t immediately be reached.
Rushing said it became clear after the trial and lengthy written closing arguments by both sides’ attorneys that the Rices “feel extremely frustrated and heartsick about their daughter Rebekah’s high school experience.”
“The court sympathizes with every parent whose child is hurt by the cruelty of fellow students,” she wrote. “All of us have probably felt at some time that we were unfairly punished by a callous teacher or picked on and teased by boorish and uncaring bullies.
“Unfortunately, this is part of what teenagers endure in becoming adults.”
Rushing said the courts cannot soothe deeply hurt feelings.
The ruling said the Rices failed to prove some of their charges of discrimination and failed to follow proper legal procedures for others.
One incident debated at the trial involved vague threats Rebekah allegedly received during a peace rally in April 2004, four months after the lawsuit was filed. The Rices never filed an amended complaint to include that incident, barring them from pursuing it in court.
Rushing also took them to task for claiming Rebekah was the only student ever to be given a reprimand for saying the offending phrase without having thoroughly investigated the claim. That “seriously damages their claim that Rebekah Rice was singled out and punished excessively because of her religious beliefs,” Rushing wrote.
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070516/NEWS/705160393/1033/NEWS01