Girl suing school after expulsion for being pregnant

Stumbled on this story in my Twitter feed:

An Arkansas teenager and her mother are suing a private Christian high school over the treatment the daughter received when school officials learned she was pregnant.
According to the lawsuit, officials at Trinity Christian School badgered the teen into admitting her pregnancy, then expelled her on the spot with only eleven days remaining in the school year. After telling the student (who is not named in public court documents) that she was being expelled, school officials escorted her to a Christian pregnancy crisis center, where she was administered a pregnancy test and given counseling. Staff at the crisis center then shared information about the student with the school.
At no point during their questioning of the student or the trip to the crisis center did school officials contact the student’s mother.
The lawsuit charges race and gender discrimination as well as false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit claims that other students who were known by the school to have engaged in sexual activity were not expelled.

From studentactivism.net
The part I’m having trouble swallowing… wait, scratch that. The principle called a minor into his office without a parent present, harassed her until she admitted the rumor was true, and then expelled her 11 days before school finished… then sent her to a CPC. The pregnancy center interviewed, counseled, and tested the minor and disseminated her information to the school employees.
Despite the fact that her pregnancy violated the school’s code of conduct – which the girl and her parents signed on for when she enrolled – the school itself made some egregious errors in subjecting a minor to all of the above without parental consent. I hope the family gets every dollar out of the school that violated her civil rights. Additionally, if this case is won, the school will have to revamp its code of conduct as the clause that punishes sexual activity is only targeted at [pregnant] female students, and therefore gender-based discrimination.
One wonders if this will have an impact on other schools should the girl win her lawsuit…

Disclaimer: This post was written by a Feministing Community user and does not necessarily reflect the views of any Feministing columnist, editor, or executive director.

I'm a 25 year old small business owner trying to make in Alberta. Majoring in International development with a minor in Gender and Sexuality studies means I (try to be) fully involved in activism in my community and globally. My biggest interests lie in the areas of reproductive and sexual health, and access to services. And of course, ranting endlessly about the shambles that politics where I live, both federally and provincially, are starting to fail the public in the name of sating business enterprise. Weird, considering that I'm a greedy corporate bastard myself. ^_^

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