Homophobia, guns in school, and suing the scapegoat
I don’t usually get this emotionally involved in news stories, but this one has me really upset in so many ways.
A gay 15 year old was shot by a classmate in southern California. Horrifying!! It’s so sad, both on the level of an individual person lost, but also on the level of the continuing issues of homophobia and gun violence in America.
The parents are, since this is America, suing the school. And while I’m nothing but sympathetic to their loss, I’m finding their legal action to be really questionable. Why? Because they’re not claiming that the school allowed a homophobic environment hostile to their son. They’re not claiming that the school should have protected their son from guns. They’re claiming that the school didn’t enforce the dress code. The dress code? WTF?!?
Here’s the AP story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26218530/
I wonder if their lawyer told them something like this:
Well, clearly we have case against the school district. But, no, we don’t want to go near the homophobia issue or the gun issue. Those are just really too controversial. They’re issues that juries get all riled up and opinionated about. No, if we want to win this case, we need to go after something a bit less emotional and more clear-cut.
Now, indisputably, your son’s choice of clothing and the fact that he wore makeup put him in danger from his classmates. Clearly this should not have been allowed to continue. And following the doctrine of in loco parentis, it clearly was not your responsibility as his parents, but the responsibility of the school to control what he wore.
It’s easy to see how grieving parents are looking for someone, anyone, to blame. But, is it worth ignoring the real issues to make a buck? I guess their lawyer thinks so.
