pregnancy test lawsuit

[Digglu]

since i couldn't find this anywhere here:

By KAREN MATTHEWS
Associated Press Writer

July 8, 2003, 4:07 PM EDT

NEW YORK -- School administrators in Washington Heights forced several eighth-graders to be tested for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases after they attended a "hooky party" last spring, the New York Civil Liberties Union charged in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.

"What they did is completely unheard of," said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU. "It violates their right to privacy. It violated their right to go to school. It violated their right not to be subjected to summary punishment."

Dr. David Bell, a specialist in adolescent medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital's family planning clinic who saw two of the girls, said he was "outraged" that Intermediate School 164 demanded confidential medical information from the students.

"Having teens presented to me as a punishment jeopardizes their trust to future relationships with me and their future care providers," Bell said.

Asked about the suit, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said, "As in any lawsuit there are two sides. Different people have different views of what happened and we will respond appropriately in court."

A woman who answered the phone at I.S. 164 said she had no comment.

The civil liberties union is representing two of approximately 11 girls who cut school on April 11 and attended a "hooky party" where there reportedly was sexual activity, Lieberman said.

"The next school day when they went back to school they were summoned to the principal's office and effectively suspended," Lieberman said.

She said the girls were told they had to be tested for pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and could not return to school without a doctor's note that included the test results.

One male student also attended the party, but he was not required to be tested for diseases, Lieberman said.

According to the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the two plaintiffs, identified as Jane Doe and Susan Roe, underwent the tests over spring break and returned to school with notes stating only that they had been seen in the clinic.

"These initial notes were rejected by the principal and school administrator because they weren't signed by a doctor and more importantly they didn't indicate the tests performed or the results of the test," said Rebekah Diller, director of the NYCLU's reproductive rights project and the lead attorney in the case.

The girls were each forced to go back and get a second note that included their test results, she said.

They were then allowed to return to school, and they both graduated from the eighth grade and will attend high school in the fall.

"There seems to be an assumption here that if they had tested positive for pregnancy or for an STD that they would not have been allowed back in the school," Lieberman said. "That's clearly wrong under the law."

The lawsuit names as defendants school principal Lavern Reid and administrator Vera Hamburger as well as the city and the Department of Education.

In addition to unspecified monetary damages, the NYCLU is asking the court to order the Department of Education to apologize to the girls, to return their confidential medical information to them, to remove the matter from their academic records and to train its personnel to respect students' privacy rights.

[This message has been edited by Digglu (edited 07-24-2003 02:46 PM).]

[Neo]

Probably wanted to know if it was safe to attend the next hooky party with those girls.

[edit]And I've never heard of getting suspending for skipping one day.[/edit]

[This message has been edited by Neo (edited 07-24-2003 02:56 PM).]

[HyToFry]

If there was only one guy, then why the hell did they have pregancy tests all around? And who was this bastard?

[One Skunk Todd]

I thought having sex with 11 eighth graders was SOP in hatU.