Supplemental Lawsuit of the Day: Principal’s ‘Phallusy’?
A high school principal in Indiana doesn’t want slutty-seeming students playing sports, reports Courthouse News Service.
Two sophomores attended a summer slumber party with other girls from Churubusco High School. They did what all high school girls do at slumber parties (at least in the imagination of high school boys). From their complaint [PDF]:
During the sleepover the girls took pictures of themselves pretending to kiss or lick a large multi-colored novelty lollipop shaped phallus that they had purchased as well as pictures of themselves in lingerie with dollar bills stuck in their clothes as well as other pictures.Ed. note: See this comment. Should that read “phallus-shaped lollipop”?
The girls later posted these photos on MySpace. Someone among their MySpace “friends” printed the pics and gave them to the principal. The principal decided the girls had violated the school’s code of conduct and suspended them from all extracurricular activities, including athletics, for the entire school year.
The ACLU thinks the principal is a sucker, and has stepped in to help the girls sue their school.
Okay, so these teenagers took some ill-advised, bachelorette party-worthy photos and unwisely posted them to MySpace. They point out in their lawsuit that their MySpace settings were such that only “friends” could see them. Perhaps they should hunt down the “friend” who printed these and put them in the hands of the principal, and go after him or her for distribution of child pornography.
We’re puzzled by the principal’s decision after seeing the photos of his students in lingerie. It seems like poor judgment to ban them from extracurricular activities. Instead of pursuing healthy activities, like soccer or basketball, these girls will now have all their afternoons free for dressing up in lingerie and playing with phallic lollipops. Soon they’ll be going to amateur strip club hours and injuring themselves.
The only good thing to come of this is that, according to the complaint, “the plaintiffs are extremely reluctant to express themselves by posting pictures on their MySpace pages and are generally afraid to share pictures, e-mails, or other communications with their friends.” Another win in the war against sexting.
Students Fight Punishment for MySpace Pics [Courthouse News Service]
Complaint [U.S. District Court, Northern District of Indiana]
(78) Comments
Comments
Comments hidden for your protection. Show them anyway!
First!!!!!!
I want to make love to a schoolboy!
Kash, light of my life, fire of my loins.
"lollipop shaped phallus"?
That seems even more inappropriate than a phallus-shaped lollipop.
Shocking that this should come [pun intended] from a school district in Indiana. Really. Shocking...
Principal...
You lose. This will be a simple case for ACLU. Sorry buddy.
Perhaps the principal isn't getting any at home...so he wants to make sure no one else does either. Otherwise, I don't see how this makes any sense.
Can't find the pics. Please post.
Perfect day for this to come out. Great Leader signs into law the Thought Crimes Bill of 2009 sorry I mean Hate Crimes bill of 2009 and now we find out that you can be punished for not breaking any laws. Hooray. So glad that the PC police have seized total control.
4, I was thinking that exact same thing!
But after reading this story, though, I'm now reassured that I'm not the only gentleman with a member shaped like a timpani mallet.
At least they aren't asking for money in the prayer for relief
#1 and all other ATL readers similarly inclined:
Please stop with the "FIRST!" comments. They're dumb.
Thank you.
8 - Your dissent - like all others - will be crushed. Obviously you're a racist.
Wait they'll be kept from playing basketball as well as soccer as well as lacrosse as well as field hockey as well as being barred from swim team as well as prohibited from acting in the school play as well as anything else?
Kash, please post naked pics of yourself.
Thanks.
Guest
11
Relax, it's part of the fun. If you're going to complain about comments, people who go "First, Firsty, Firsty, McFirst," et al should be the least of your concerns.
-Not 1
useless without pics?
Is it wrong to fantasize about Kash based on her writing? She totally turns me on.
15 - how are you criticize me?
- 11
fuck. *dare
12-
8 here. I am sure that I will soon be picked up and taken to a re-education plant to learn the errors of my ways. I am betting that soon Death Camps of Tolerance (see South Park episodes if you do not know the reference) will be poping up across the country.
Now that their extracurricular activities are suspended, these girls will have ample time to participate in after school drinking, drugs, and sex.
First to note ATL's new policy of using a sexually provocative picture to accompany most post , and to focus on posts that can accomodate such material. Lat must have heard this strategy at some web-seminar on driving page views, because the only other natural suspect for this prurient turn would be Elie Mystal, a man of the finest moral fiber.
Nothing ever even remotely associated with Vladamir Nebekov should be posted on this trash-ridden excuse for legal entertainment. In otherwords, Mystal is the polar opposite of the brilliance of Nebekov and they should forever remain separated.
18
You appear to be missing a verb? Can I bash you about that too?
-15
Lil Wayne could not be reached for comment.
This is totally hot, almost as hot as the story a few years back about the milton academy students and their sex parties.
Pics or it didn't happen.
NAbakov
15 -
See comment 19.
- 11
@23: VladImir NAbOkov.
If you are going to invoke the names of the masters, please to invoke them spelled correctly.
Kash,
Please provide a link to these girls' MySpace pages.
Thanks
Former Governor of New York
please to invoke them spelled correctly. for the last word on pedantry.
23, Thanks for telling us of your love for "Vladamir Nebekov" and the literary standards he represents. That's not a remotely plausible an alternative transliteration of the Russian so don't try that one.
Regarding your comparison, you must note, however, that they are quite alike. Neither is a native speaker of English, both became famous writing salacious pulp, both push the boundaries of grammar and usage to the breaking point.
Furthermore, Elie is more like a polar bear than an opposite.
With regard to the corrections noted, please revise your comments and resubmit. Thanks.
11/29
First to say you are really too sensetive. You must be one of the broads that got all up in arms about the female rainmakers post.
-15
I need pictures. And phone numbers. And addresses.
-- David Letterman.
15
I was only kidding. You appear a bit sensitive yourself. Truce...
11
@35 - How do you still have a job?
@32 - Sometimes being drippingly pedantic is the only cure for what ails you. :-)
- 30
How doesn't this fall within the ambit of Frederick v. Morse? Seems like a L for the ACLU
11
Sounds like a plan, but was hoping to at least generate some sort of response from people for my flame. C'est la vie.
-15
The idea of a lollipop-shaped phallus makes me laugh, then cry.
I would like lollipop in the shape of a walrus, please.
Mystal
A billion dollar default judgment against pepsi
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Price-to-PepsiCo-for-Not-law-3214509113.html?x=0&.v=1
40, this took place at a summer slumber party. As far as I can tell it was not remotely related to school. Morse dealt with display of drug related messages at what the court accepted was a school related event.
40, this took place at a summer slumber party. As far as I can tell it was not remotely related to school. Morse dealt with display of drug related messages at what the court accepted was a school related event.
***************************************
PEPSI LOSES $1.6b case
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Price-to-PepsiCo-for-Not-law-3214509113.html?x=0&.v=1
****************************************
46
You are too late
43
39-
I have never heard of a case called Frederick v. Morse so you may be right, however in Morse v. Frederick the event was considered a school sponsered event. So unless it was a school sponsered sleepover (which I am doubting it was) then this case will be a big W for the ACLU
48
Horrible reasoning skills. It's the display of the photos, not the taking of them, that matters in this instance. It wasn't that Frederick MADE the sign, it's that he displayed it during a school sponsored event. You have the right outcome, but it turns on whether the school can reach the internet postings, and that may turn on whether the girls uploaded the pictures at school on school computers, which is very unlikely.
Epic fail for pepsi. Judges love the "my secretary screwed up" defense to not answering complaints.
Need pics. please.
49- Would love to hear why you say that the case turns on whether or not the school can reach the postings. The students (from how I read the complaint) are not being punished for the uploading but rather for the content of the party that was memorialized by the photos. They event was the party where they acted "slutty."
Bong hits and phallus lollipops for jesus!
49- Would love to hear why you say that the case turns on whether or not the school can reach the postings. The students (from how I read the complaint) are not being punished for the uploading but rather for the content of the party that was memorialized by the photos. They event was the party where they acted "slutty."
In related new, I heard that as punishment the town elders have passed an ordinance banning dancing...
In related news, I heard that as punishment the town elders have passed an ordinance banning dancing...
Sorry, the ACLU will not have an easy time with this case. Behavior of students at off-campus activities is subject to school policy. A good example of this are several cases where students were suspended because they posted pictures of them drinking alcohol underage. This is no different.
One might argue, as the ACLU probably is in this case, that the girls have a Constitutional right to post pictures of themselves acting like sluts because that isn't illegal. Wrong answer. The pictures would constitute child pornography, and the mere fact that the "victims" created it is irrelevant.
55-
Don't worry. I have Kevin Bacon in the car, we are on our way. "Gotta gotta cut loose... Foot Loose...."
11 - Don't begrudge a tiny sense of dubious accomplishment in this vast cesspool of mediocrity.
I chaperoned this party and it was totally appropriate.
Mark Chimura
57- have you ever read a child pornography statute? Here is Indiana's for your benefit:
(c) A person who knowingly or intentionally possesses:
(1) a picture;
(2) a drawing;
(3) a photograph;
(4) a negative image;
(5) undeveloped film;
(6) a motion picture;
(7) a videotape;
(8) a digitized image; or
(9) any pictorial representation;
that depicts or describes sexual conduct by a child who the person knows is less than sixteen (16) years of age or who appears to be less than sixteen (16) years of age, and that lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value commits possession of child pornography, a Class D felony.
"Sexual conduct" means sexual intercourse, deviate sexual conduct, exhibition of the uncovered genitals intended to satisfy or arouse the sexual desires of any person, sadomasochistic abuse, sexual intercourse or deviate sexual conduct with an animal, or any fondling or touching of a child by another person or of another person by a child intended to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of either the child or the other person.
Burns Ind. Code Ann. ยง 35-42-4-4
So no the pictures would not constitute child pornography. Can you please cite these alcohol cases you speak of? If they are true, they are breaking the law and are being punished for that. What law is being broken here? That the girls posed in sexually suggestive outfits?
43
It wasnt a competition. Gosh..you really must be unhappy with your life.
46
57 - Fail
54
It definitely won't hinge on whether the slumber party was a school-sponsored event. Protected, expressive activity can only be regulated if it has a tendency to materially disrupt school activities--which, admittedly, lewd pictures can. That a myspace posting would rise to that level is tenuous. Thus, it will hinge on whether these pictures (a) are lewd and (b) were made in a manner that would materially disrupt school activity (ie, whether posting them on myspace is akin to wearing a lewd t-shirt to school).
People have already commented on 57's failures, so I will leave that alone.
Bong Hits For Jesus is playing at Cousin Larry's in Danbury, CT on Friday!
(http://bonghitsforjesus.net/)
Friday, October 30, 2009 9:00pm
Cousin Larry's, 1 Elm St, Danbury , CT, USA
^
Probable Lesbo
Hmmm. They're not _that_ racy. Managed to find a couple pics on an obscure blog.
http://twurl.nl/ri60ez
Churubusco is an awesome little town. I love Turtle Days in the summer.
64-
54 here. Thank you for the comment. Con Law was never really my strong suit, mostly corporate law here.
Actually, a youtube from the party has been circulating. Agree that it's not that bad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI
Guys at my high school used to dress up in lingerie and lick phallic lollipops all the time. It was no big deal.
Aghh! Rickrolled again!
I'm surprised at how many errors there are in the ACLU's complaint.
Oh wait, I'm not.
What? No pictures? Why did I click through?
I know Principal Couch.
Principal Couch is a friend of mine.
And I say to you, sir, that Principal Couch is just mad that they stole his phallus.
Essential facts wrong:
It was a lollipop-shaped phallus
"The girls say they were allowed to play for part of the season after they went to counseling and apologized to an all-male panel of coaches."
The "panel" sounds like it was made up of a bunch of pervs.
Coach #1: "Tell us more about what you were wearing."
Coach #2: "Are you wearing underwear now?"
Of course the school is going to change their decision--because legally, they don't have any ground beyond subjective morals...and most people consider wearing lingerie to be okay. Now if a true private school said in their rulebook that students weren't allowed to do that, then they of course the school would win the case because those girls would have accepted those conditions by enrolling in the school. It's just that if that was the case, most people wouldn't go to that school and it would go out of business. Public schools, though, can't go out of business, so they can literally do whatever they want, say whatever they want, and children will still be forced to go. The only barrier is again subjective morals; and again, I think most people agree that lingerie isn't bad. But when it comes to cell phones, gun searches, 8 hour days, mandatory PE, sex ed., prayer, etc, people have mixed feelings, and since there can only be ONE system of 'education', then everybody will inevitably be shorted in the end, as they are now.