School can expel lesbian students, court rules

[I.A.S.K.]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

You're right, it depends. Do these two girls define happiness as being able to express their sexuality without fear of reprimand? That's reasonable unless the way they were expressing it was by feeling each other up. There is a way to express oneself appropriately on school grounds. Because the article is not clear what the so-called "lesbian characteristics" are, it'll remain speculation whether their behavior was questionable or actually against "reasonable" school policy. note:I'm not actually being that facetious, but I can just imagine that point being raised by somebody.

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From the article it appeared that the school used an interrogation, a student overhearing them say I love you, and their myspace pages to determine that they were lesbians. They did not seem do anything at school (besides say "I love you" because before a student overheard this there was no issue with the girls. And I think that if they'd been feeling each other up there would have been plenty of people to say something) that was grossly inappropriate. As such they seem to have been expelled because of their sexual orientation.

Why the difference in wording? This separation keeps the Church from "forcing" their beliefs on others, meanwhile the state only "regulates?" It would seem to me that bringing the law into proceedings like this is "forcing" the beliefs of the government (and outside citizens/voters by extension) on the church by telling them what rules they can or cannot set forth. That sort of regulation would be necessary if the Church was actually infringing on others rights, but then that leads us back to the definition guessing game. Most of this thing is guesswork: what the girls actually did, whether they were warned or just expelled suddenly, what the school policy actually says, etc.

The history behind the rule is that the church used to force its beliefs on the people in Britian through the regulation of the state. Since the duty of the state is to regulate I used the term regulate. You can say they both force. I chose not to use that term because force to me signals something that is unnecessary because it doesnt infringe on any rights whereas regulation to me signals that the action is necessary because there is a right being violated. In this situation I'm inclined to believe that the student's rights were violated.

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by I.A.S.K.

From the article it appeared that the school used an interrogation, a student overhearing them say I love you, and their myspace pages to determine that they were lesbians. They did not seem do anything at school (besides say "I love you" because before a student overheard this there was no issue with the girls. And I think that if they'd been feeling each other up there would have been plenty of people to say something) that was grossly inappropriate. As such they seem to have been expelled because of their sexual orientation.

See, schools should have juridiction over what happens on school grounds, IMO. What's on a Myspace page of a minor should be monitored by his or her PARENT (though that's for another debate). What someone "heard" one of the girls say is just that, hearsay, and not even bad hearsay at that. (I tell everyone I love them!!!) In this case, the school's actions seem unfair to me. I still can't say anything about the rules they set forth, but they should at least be enforced with fairness. I guess the issue I have (lol among others) is the law regulating (read: interferring with) the setting of rules established by the Church meant for their own. Now, the enforcement of said rules does need governance, I'll admit that. It's when the two are confused that the trouble starts.