Urgh. Zwire reports today that a mother in Pennsylvania is fighting her daughter's dismissal from school. It seems the 13-year-old engaged in oral sex on the school bus with a male classmate while returning from a field trip. The mother is fighting the dismissal because the school district was allegedly "not clear in its written policies that oral sex on a bus was unacceptable behavior" :
Judge George E. James disagreed, ruling that the expulsion was legal and was supported by substantial evidence. James upheld the disciplinary action and denied the appeal...
Both children admitted to middle school Principal Thomas Ralston that they had consensual oral sex on the bus in front of other pupils. During an expulsion hearing June 2 before the school board, the girl said her behavior was the result of peer pressure...
Neither the bus driver nor two chaperones noticed what was going on. Administrators learned of the incident after several pupils told a guidance counselor, who reported it to Ralston...
Um, mom? Fighting your child's expulsion on these grounds is not what you should be concentrating on right now. If you must be involved in threatening legal action, you should be demanding that the driver and chaperone be fired/sanctioned; the chaperone is, at the very least, guilty of "contributing to the delinquency of a minor" by not providing any chaperonage whatsoever. If you have any sort of case against the school district, I think this would be it.
But the legal battles should be the least of your concerns right now. You should also be urging your daughter to attend the county's mental health agency for counseling, which should give her the strength to understand what she did wrong and to find a whole new set of friends - ones who won't encourage her to engage in risky sexual activity in public.
The daughter needs emotional support right now, and the mother's legal action that splits hairs over whether such behavior needs to be explicitly prohibited isn't providing it. This type of legal battle suggests that any behavior not explicitly prohibited should be considered okay, which is most definitely not the case.
Posted by kswygert at September 16, 2003 01:15 PM