One More Time: The Internet is a Public Place: Appellate Division 0

In California, a Christian school wins an appeal affirming its right to expel students for homosexuality.

The case is troubling, not least because there was no evidence of homosexual behavior, except for “my word against your word” claims.

If the full news report is accurate, the students in question were expelled because of a picture of a hug and because of what they wrote on MySpace (emphasis added):

The girls were expelled in their junior year for “conducting themselves in a manner consistent with being lesbians,” (how’s that for weasel-wording?–ed.) said McKay, who added that the girls never disclosed their sexual orientation during the litigation. Hanson said the girls had been “best friends” and, citing their privacy, declined to discuss their sexual orientation. They are now in college, he said.

The dispute started when a student at the school told a teacher in 2005 that one of the girls had said she loved the other. The student advised the teacher to look at the girls’ MySpace pages. One of the girls was identified as bisexual on her MySpace page, the other’s page said she was “not sure” of her sexual orientation.

McKay said the website also contained a photograph of the girls hugging.

According to the principal, who called each girl out of class separately, both admitted they had hugged and kissed each other and told other students they were lesbians. The girls said they admitted only that they loved each other as friends.

Leaving aside any discussion of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation vs. freedom of religious association (I’m not going there on a bet), note the following:

• There was no independetnly substantiated evidence of homosexual behavior.
• The case was based on hearsay. And, having been an adolescent myself, shortly after the term was invented, I attest that you hear an awful lot of say, especially about sex, at that age, and that most of it is false.
• Homosexual experimentation among adolescents is not unusual.

In its mission statement, the school claims

To deal with each student as a redeemed child of God, offering counseling, encouragement, and loving Christian discipline.

Except, apparently, when hugs, MySpace, and sexual suspicions are involved.

Then it’s the ax.