Rebekah Rice, a high school freshman, was teased about being Mormon. She responded by saying, “That’s so gay.” She was reprimanded by the school principal, and a “notation” was put in her file. She was upset, but she got over it. Ha! Just kidding. This is Overlawyered. Actually, she filed a lawsuit, claiming her constitutional rights (to call things gay?) were violated.
It’s not clear what sort of “notation” was put in her file, but the lawsuit demanded (in addition, of course, to money) that it be expunged. In the abstract, one might be sympathetic to the notion that informing college admissions offices that she was punished for using derogatory slurs might be damaging to her future prospects. (Rice denies — credibly, in my view — that the phrase was aimed at gay students.) Except, of course, that filing a lawsuit is hardly the way to keep her disciplinary history a secret.
(Previous posts about teenagers suing over school discipline: Feb. 22; Jan. 5)