CHURUBUSCO, Ind. (October 31, 2009) -- School officials may not be talking and the families involved may not be talking - but everyone else is.
Before the ACLU filed a lawsuit on two teen girls' behalf against the school in this small northeast town of 1,600 located ten miles north of Fort Wayne, the most comments ever received on a local news blog were posted to a nostalgic column written about growing up in Churubusco. But that all changed 24 hours after a story was picked up and posted on buscovoice.com about two sophomore girls who sued the local Smith-Green school district after being punished for posting sexually suggestive photos on Facebook this past summer.
The American Civil Liberties Union stepped in and the news broke Wednesday, Oct. 28, that a federal lawsuit had been filed on the girls' behalf.
That's when it hit the fan. Administrators of Buscovoice.com said they have been working full time on their part time venture - just keeping up with the constant comments posted from angry parents and teens in the community. And the comments are coming from both sides of the fence, according to Chris and Sarah Tomlinson, co-owners who approve the comments before posting.
"We've had to delete a few comments because there was some name calling," Chris Tomlinson said.
The lawsuit states that the girls free speech rights were violated by Churubusco High School after administrators banned the girls from cheerleading and other sports for what the teens said "was just a joke."
The girls, along with several others according to reports, were attending a sleepover during summer break and took photos of each other posing in lingerie and holding phallic shaped suckers - that favorite party favor at bachelorette bashes. The girls did not wear anything that identified them as students of Churubusco High School and said they set the privacy settings on the Internet social networking site so that only friends could view the photos.
The ACLU argues that the incident had no effect on the school, since it happened during summer break. The identity of the parent who delivered the photos to the high school principal, Austin Couch, who is named in the lawsuit, is unclear.
The ACLU said Couch went too far after kicking the teens off of all sport teams - first for the entire school year - and later reduced to the fall semester. The girls were also required to apologize to an all-male coaches board and to undergo sexual addiction counseling, which the suit stated was "humiliating."
ACLU officials have said they are seeking to have all references to the incident expunged from school records and seeks to prevent similar actions in the future.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling stipulates that students can be disciplined for activities that happen outside of school if the school can prove the activities were dangerous or disruptive.
A trial has not yet been scheduled in the U.S. District Court in Fort Wayne.
Meanwhile the administrators of the town's local news blog continue to monitor the incoming flurry of comments from inside what one reader called the "community's digital coffee shop."
Tomlinson said the comments pouring in on his Web site have included both sides of the issue, such as the following:
From Stunned: The fact of the matter is that the school system has once again overstepped their bounds. It is the kids’ parents who should punish the girls, not the school system. From what I read it was over summer vacation when this took place, not during the school year. The kids weren’t doing anything illegal.There was no reference to what school they went to. They were just young girls being teenagers.My concern is the person that turned in the pictures. What type of person tools around on the kids profiles. I think the school system needs to look into this predator. I think it’s about time that someone stood up for these kids and their rights. Where does the school stop. What’s next? Religous pictures/views? Political? The only message the school is sending out that it is okay not to like someone and turn in some pictures and get them in trouble. This isn’t the 1st time this has happened. I believe a parent turned in a bunch of kids last year after spring break, as well. It is the same people who stir things up year after year, and it is time that it stops. What sort of satisfaction are these people getting from it? Sounds to me like they need to get a life and quit worrying about other people’s. I am sure there is more to the story than what has been published.
From Busco: The school has not overstepped their bounds! These girls are participating in school activities and not representing this community or school with their actions. “young girls just being teenagers”- what kind of teenagers act like this? Pretending to be strippers and other things? What they were doing is wrong and disturbing! The students last year deserved punishment also! Drinking is drinking even if it is not in Indiana! If the coach suspended them instead of the school, does that make it any different? If students are going to post pictures on the internet, they are available to anyone with a computer! You do not have to be a stalker to come across these things. That is why you post them, to be seen by other people!
To read the Associated Press/Indy Star article on this story, click here.
Comments
School administrators need to learn what is and what is not their business. And this is clearly *not* their business. The principal is a dope and should lose his job over this manifest display of poor judgment.
To Busco; Get a life. The school far overstepped thier bounds.IT was NOT in school, around school or about school, just a bunch of dumb kids, and it brought out the typical stupidity of the school they attend. As far as the drinking issue, that is a criminal issue and not a civil issue.
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