Calif. high court OKs lesbian students expulsion
(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.
Source
Flames on the side of my face.
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.
Source
Flames on the side of my face.