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‘That’s so gay’ prompts a lawsuit
Student sent to principal’s office insists it was not a homophobic putdown

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - 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'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 putdown 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.

A confusing set of terms
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.

Daughter singled out, parents say
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.

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Mormon family sues Santa Rosa schools over pro-gay policies

A Santa Rosa couple, members of the ultra conservative Eagle Forum, is suing the Santa Rosa schools claiming their daughter suffered discrimination and harassment when she was a student at one of the district's high schools.

The couple, Kathy and Elden Rice, said that their daughter, Rebekah Rice, faced teasing and threats from students and unfair disciplinary action by a teacher because of her religion and her parent's opposition to school policies. The family belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Santa Rosa.

The incidents cited in the lawsuit include a written referral for saying "that's so gay," an alleged threat by an openly lesbian student, a classroom presentation that included the R-rated film, Saving Private Ryan, and a mistaken search of Rebekah's backpack.

The non-jury trial began last week in Sonoma County Judge Elaine Rushing's courtroom. In the lawsuit, which names teacher Claudine Gans-Rugebregt, Principal Mark Klick, and Assistant Principal Frances Kass Mason, the Rices said school officials retaliated against Rebekah Rice because of her parents' involvement in protests against a Day of Dialogue held at Maria Carrillo High School in 2000.

On Tuesday, February 19, Orlean Koehle, president of the California Eagle Forum and a Santa Rosa substitute teacher, said "Elden [Rice] took the lead and essentially led the charge" when a small group of religiously conservative parents protested the event, especially the inclusion of a presentation on homosexuality.

Filed in December 2003, the lawsuit seeks an order for the school district to comply with education code regulations it allegedly violated, notification to every parent that the school failed to inform them about the showing of the R-rated film, unspecified monetary damages, and removal of the referral from Rebekah Rice's school record.

Koehle, who had to be admonished several times for speaking out of turn, admitted that the Rices's lawsuit was "partially to counter the pro-gay agenda in public schools."

According to testimony last week by Rebekah Rice, in 2002 her humanities teacher, Gans-Rugebregt, wrote a referral after the teenager said "that's so gay" in response to students teasing her about her Mormon religion.

According to Maria Carrillo Assistant Principal Ron Calloway, a referral goes into a separate discipline file, rather than a student's permanent file, so it would not be part of student's records when he or she applies to colleges.

The Rices maintain students do not typically receive a referral for a first offense and their daughter was being singled out because of her parents' activism.

On Tuesday, Monique Cetard, a freshman at Maria Carrillo, said she heard another student exclaim "that's so gay" in Gans-Rugebregt's classroom and the teacher only admonished the student with a verbal warning.

"She [Gans-Rugebregt] said it's sexual harassment and he [the student] would get a referral next time," Cetard testified.

Klick, the principal, testified that he investigated the disciplinary action at Elden Rice's request and he found that it was appropriate. According to school officials, teachers have the option to make a referral or issue a warning.

Then, in 2003, assistant principal Mason searched Rebekah's backpack after a student reported that another student with the same first name had a knife and cigarettes in her backpack. In court last week, Mason admitted that the report mentioned a student with a different last name. The Rices, in their lawsuit, said this was another example of their daughter being targeted for her family's beliefs.

Later in the year, Elden Rice called the school again, this time saying an openly lesbian student had threatened his daughter while speaking at an anti-hate crime rally. Students had organized this unofficial walkout, march, and rally in response to anti-racist graffiti that had recently been scrawled on the school walls.

According to testimony Tuesday by school principal Klick, he interviewed one of three students who had told Rebekah Rice about the alleged threat. Rice had been present at the rally but did not, apparently, hear the threat herself.

The student Klick interviewed, a part-time employee of Elden Rice at his dental clinic, told him the rally speaker said she had a black belt in karate and "the girl in my math class who said, 'that's so gay,' I could kick your ass."

But, after interviewing the rally speaker, an honor student with no history of causing trouble in school, Klick said he concluded that there was no real threat of physical danger to Rebekah Rice. Because the Rices were so concerned, however, he said he elected to "shadow" Rebekah, a process by which school administrators and security officers kept continual watch over the girl to protect her.

"Nicky [the lesbian student] said she didn't remember her exact words, or making a threat to any student on campus," Klick testified.

The trial is expected to continue through next week. According to Mark Peters, the attorney for the Santa Rosa High School District, Rushing has asked the attorneys to provide final comments in writing after the testimony and she will render her decision after she considers those statements.

Meanwhile, Elden Rice is scheduled to speak about his lawsuit March 31 at the annual education conference of the Eagle Forum of California. The organization's Web site describes Rice as "a brave dentist who has a lawsuit with his school district because of their promoting the homosexual agenda."