Lesbian
sues school district over harassment
State's first-such suit says
Holmdel teen suffered daily humiliation
Thursday, September 08, 2005 • BY JUDY PEET •
Star-Ledger Staff
All she ever wanted, Nancy Wadington
said, was an education.
Instead, the Holmdel teenager said she
got a daily lesson in humiliation from classmates who called
her names, threw bottles at her, urinated in her backpack
and pushed her down a flight of stairs.
Wadington, 18, is a lesbian. She was when
she started Holmdel High School in 2001 and when she left
after nearly three years of what her mother called "a living
nightmare."
Yesterday, Lambda Legal, a national gay
rights organization, filed suit on behalf of Wadington,
charging that Holmdel school officials knew about the abuse
and systematically ignored it.
The lawsuit is the first in New Jersey
asking for a jury to determine monetary damages for anti-gay
harassment in the schools, which is illegal under the
state's civil rights laws.
"It is an atrocity that school officials
would ignore laws in New Jersey, which are touted as being
the most comprehensive nondiscrimination laws on the books,"
Alphonso David, a Lambda staff attorney said at a news
conference announcing the suit.
Holmdel officials said they were unaware
of Wadington's allegations and first learned of them from
court papers yesterday.
"If it's true, of course it's
distressing," said school board attorney Martin Barger, who
has represented the Monmouth County district since 1978.
"But it wasn't ignored at the highest level because we never
heard of it."
Superintendent Maureen Flaherty said the
school code of conduct explicitly bans harassment based on
various factors, including sexual orientation, and requires
principals to report all harassment.
She said she never heard of Wadington.
The principal during the time Wadington was a student has
since left the district.
Though the lawsuit may be the first
seeking a jury trial in a case involving alleged gay-bashing
in New Jersey schools, there is precedent.
In 1998, a Wisconsin school district paid
$1 million to a student who suffered similarly after a
federal appeals court ruled that schools are liable for
ignoring anti- gay harassment.
Last year, the New Jersey Division on
Civil Rights ordered the Toms River Regional School District
to pay $50,000 to a boy who was slapped, punched and taunted
by classmates who thought he was gay. The district was also
fined $10,000 and ordered to upgrade its
policies.
Wadington's suit said the abuse began in
2001 when she was in ninth grade. Wadington was not the only
gay or lesbian student at Holmdel High, but was the only one
"outed" by one of her classmates, said David, who did not
allow his client to answer questions.
David said the classmates -- whom he
identified as a small cluster of males and females -- called
Wadington names and threw food and bottles at her in the
cafeteria. She and her mother complained several times, but
"school officials took no effective measures in
response."
In the spring of ninth grade, Wadington's
backpack was stolen. It was found in one of the boys'
bathrooms, covered with urine. Soon after that, her locker
was broken into and her books and belongings scattered
around the school hallway, spat on and damaged, according to
the lawsuit.
Wadington complained and was again told
nothing could be done. "Instead school administrators
charged Nancy for the books that had been destroyed," the
complaint stated.
When she was in 10th grade, the abuse
became physical, culminating when students, who were not
identified, pushed her down a flight of stairs, according to
the lawsuit. Because of her "fears for her emotional and
physical safety," she stopped using the school bathrooms and
the girls locker rooms, the suit states.
Her mother, Barbara, continued to beg for
help from school authorities, but without success, David
said. He did not comment on whether the family attempted to
contact the school board or superintendent.
By her junior year, Wadington was so
upset that a counselor at the local YMCA intervened with
school administrators, according to court papers. The school
placed Wadington on home instruction for the rest of the
year.
The school also classified her as
"emotionally disturbed" and transferred her for her senior
year to Collier High School, a private school for special
education students. The court papers cited a portion of
Wadington's classification evaluation that
stated:
"... She has suffered from panic attacks
and an acute stress disorder due to continual harassment at
Holmdel High School from her peers ... because of her sexual
orientation. ... She has had verbal and physical threats
made against her ..."
The suit, which only names the Holmdel
Board of Education, seeks compensatory damages for physical
and emotional pain and suffering. It also seeks an order
forcing Holmdel to implement better anti-discrimination
policies.
© 2005 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with
permission.
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