LGBT Students Awarded $300,000 Against School District

Having enlightened laws to protect LGBT students mean little if school administrators fail to enforce them. Thus why it is sometimes necessary for lawsuits and damages awards to make those who are in charge pay attention and do what they should already be doing. A case in point is a lawsuit in California where two LGBT students received an aggregate award of $300,000 against a school division that failed to protect them from harassment which at times became downright violent. Inasmuch as most juries are no overly LBGT friendly, to support an award of $300,000 the facts must have been fairly egregious. If the award is upheld on appeal - which hopefully it will be since appellate courts are generally not disposed to overturn jury findings of fact perhaps this type of situation will become much more rare. Here are some highlights from 365gay.com:

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Joey Ramelli and Megan Donovan were students at Poway High School, a school in the Poway Unified School District in northern San Diego County. Over the course of their junior year other students relentlessly taunted them with antigay slurs and Joey was even physically assaulted and his car was vandalized. The two students found the harassment so brutal that they both had to drop out of Poway High School and completed studies toward their high school diploma at home.

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Represented by Lambda Legal they took the district to court in 2005. During the trial the court was told that both Donovan and Ramelli reported the harassment to school officials but nothing was done. The jury found that the officials took “minimal or no action at all” when they reported the incidents. Further, the jury found that the harassment was so “severe and pervasive” that they awarded a combined $300,000 to the students.

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“Joey and Megan are seeking justice so that no other gay or lesbian student will have to endure what they did,” said Lambda attorney Brian Chase. “This decision sent a clear message to schools across California that harassment of gay and lesbian students will not be tolerated,” Chase said. “Hardly a day went by that I didn’t get shoved or called a name, so there was no way that anyone could question that what was happening to me was a serious, constant problem,” Ramelli said.