When a few
classmates razzed Rebekah Rice about her Mormon upbringing
with questions such as ''Do you have 10 moms?'' she shot
back, ''That's so gay.''
Those three words
landed the high school freshman in the principal's
office and resulted in a lawsuit that raises this question:
When do playground insults used every day all over
America cross the line into hate speech that must be
stamped out?
After Rice got a
warning and a notation in her file, her parents sued,
claiming officials at Santa Rosa, Calif.'s Maria Carillo
High violated their daughter's First Amendment rights
when they disciplined her for uttering a phrase
''which enjoys widespread currency in youth culture,''
according to court documents.
Testifying last
week about the 2002 incident, Rice, now 18, said that
when she uttered those words, she was not referring to
anyone's sexual orientation. She said the phrase meant
''That's so stupid, that's so silly, that's so dumb.''
But school
officials say they took a strict stand against the put-down
after two boys were paid to beat up a gay student the year
before.
''The district
has a statutory duty to protect gay students from
harassment,'' the district's lawyers argued in a legal
brief. ''In furtherance of this goal, prohibition of
the phrase 'That's so gay'...was a reasonable
regulation.''
Superior court
judge Elaine Rushing plans to issue a ruling in the
non-jury trial after final written arguments are submitted
in April. Her gag order prevents the two sides from
discussing the case.
Derogatory terms
for homosexuality have long been used as insults. But
the landscape has become confusing in recent years as
minority groups have tried to reclaim terms like
''queer,'' ''ghetto'' and the n word.
In recent years
gay rights advocates and educators have tried teaching
students that it is hurtful to use the word ''gay'' as an
all-purpose term for something disagreeable. At
Berkeley High School, a gay student club passed out
buttons with the words ''That's so gay'' crossed out to
get their classmates to stop using them.
Rick Ayers, a
retired teacher who helped compile and publish the
Berkeley High School Slang Dictionary, a
compendium of trendy teen talk circa 2001, said educating
students about offensive language is preferable to
policing their speech.
''I wouldn't be
surprised if this girl didn't even know the origin of
that term,'' he said. ''The kids who get caught saying it
will claim it's been decontextualized, but others will
say, 'No, you know what that means.' It's quite talked
about.''
Rice's parents,
Elden and Katherine Rice, also claim the public high
school employed a double standard because, they say,
administrators never sought to shield Rebekah from
teasing based on Mormon stereotypes.
In addition, the
Rices say their daughter was singled out because of the
family's conservative views on sexuality. They are seeking
unspecified damages and want the disciplinary notation
expunged from Rebekah's school record.
Eliza Byard,
deputy executive director of the New York-based Gay,
Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, said nearly nine
out of 10 gay students her organization surveyed in
2005 reported hearing ''That's so gay'' or ''You're so
gay'' frequently.
''It bothers them
a lot,'' Byard said. ''As odd or funny as the phrase
sounds, imagine what it feels like to be in a setting where
you consistently hear it used to describe something
undesirable or stupid, and it also refers to you.''
She said it is OK
to discipline students for using the phrase after
efforts have been made to educate them.
''The job of a
school is to deal proactively and consistently with all
forms of bullying, name-calling, and harassment,'' she said.
Jordan Lorence,
an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian
legal organization, agreed ''That's so gay'' carries a
negative meaning and said he would not want his
children to say it. But he said formal discipline is
not the answer.
''Reasonable
people should say, 'Let's put a stop to this kind of
search-and-destroy mission by school officials for
everything that is politically incorrect,''' he said.
(AP)