A ridiculous news article

[chedder]

This article made me so angry: Lawsuit Over Brokeback Mountain in Class

 

The whole idea of the lawsuit is just ridiculous. "Psychological distress?" What? I agree that an R-rated film shouldn't have been shown to a bunch of 8th graders. The substitute teacher should be dealt with by the school board. But to sue?

 

I only had the patience to read through a page or two of the comments but...I think they annoyed me more than the article did.

[Graeme]

I agree that the teacher made a mistake, but suing the board because of the action of ONE substitute teacher? If it had been any other R-rated film (eg. Saw), would it be news?

[TonyM]

I agree it was wrong to show the movie to the class without at least parental consent, but this is as bad as the father suing the city because his teenage boys found a book depicting lesbian sex in the public library. He claims his 14- and 16-year old sons were "greatly disturbed". Unless they are both gay, I seriously doubt a teenage boy will be disturbed by pics of lesbian sex. Dad probably overheard them bragging to their buddies about the book and decided to get some money out of it if he could.

 

http://www.365gay.com/Newscon07/04/042007book.htm

[JamesSavik]

The kid was probably greatly disturbed and embarrassed by his fathers idiocy.

[jfalkon]

It is anoying that these law suits happen and the ruling are often quite unfair. I have not watched the movie but I am sure it contains nothing more disturbing than what goes on in sex ed. I was taught about all kinds of sexual practices by a cathlic nun when I was in 7th grade! Where the hell is my million dolars?

[Drewbie]

I agree that movie shouldn't have been shown, but sueing for that much money

 

He also compalined about cursing in a movie they were shown, psh I read books in school, lit that had curse words init. Typical in the us , we don't mind to see violence, but one tit, omg kids are going to be damaged for the rest of their lives.

[chedder]

I know she's a minor and all but I want to know what the girl has to say about it. Was she really that disturbed? The only way Brokeback Mountain distressed me was how sad it was...but really, she had to get treatment?

 

Richardson said his granddaughter was traumatized by the movie and had to undergo psychological treatment and counseling.

[MMandM]

The teacher's conduct was probably "unethical" and would probably warrant professional discipline and termination of employment. However in order to prepare a case against the school board they will have to overcome extreme odds.

 

The essential elements of an intentional infliction of emotional distress (tort) claim are as follows:

 

1) the defendant must act intentionally or recklessly;

 

(2) the defendant's conduct must be extreme and outrageous; and

 

(3) the conduct must be the cause (4) of severe emotional distress.

 

With respect to the teachers conduct, the issue at trial will be whether an objectively reasonable person would find the teachers conduct "so outrageous in character, and so extreme in degree, as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency, and to be regarded as atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community."

 

I believe the average person, when learning of facts, takes into consideration the peculiar sensibilities of the alleged victim when considering whether the teachers conduct is extreme and outrageous.

 

This lawyer who filed suit should choose his battles more wisely.

[DomLuka]

I read a longer version of this article here.

 

Obviously, I don

[Krista]

Well one, 500,000 dollars would pay for a lot of peoples' "psychological problems" so that much money is a joke. Suing over something like this is rediculous to begin with. The only thing that should happen over showing an inapropriate movie of any kind would be the termination of the teacher. The school board had nothing to do with the teacher's decision to show a movie like that anyway. They had no way of knowing so the only person responsible is the person.

 

In grade school, 5th grade, I watched Forest Gump in a class... lol. No one thought that was bad with all the gore, cussing, political stance, violence, drug use, sex, and nudity. So really, the guardians knew what the movie was about and knew that a lot of people would think it "disgusting" or "wrong" to show it.

 

 

Anyway, greed is terrible and if they want to bankrupt a school board that would mean the education of others would be damaged then that's them. I know I would feel terrible knowing that the money to buy books went into a new dollhouse for a child that probably wasn't even emotionally scarred in the first place.

 

 

Krista

[Razor]

I got mad about this in class today. I'm quite of the opinion that they shouldn't have been showing movies with naughty bits to eight grade kids. It's just not acceptable. In a high school class I would expect it to be less of an issue since I keep hoping everyone's mature enough to deal with those sorts of situations. So when the topic came up today, one of my friends who was wearing a FISH (<---random acronym) shirt decided to say "I couldn't even look at the movie cover without gagging" I retaliated loudly....

 

The shirt had one of those fishies with JESUS in the middle of it.

 

"Oh yeah? Well Jesus fish make me f**king gag!" <----- bad idea... I got odd looks, and the Christians were out for blood. That just made me angrier and I spent the next hour talking about how I wanted to beat them with a giant, spiked metal cross. If they can't take a little backtalk... they shouldn't open their mouths. If they want to preach to me in school, I can damn well dish it back.

 

Anyway, I think the whole thing is stupid. Sure, the teacher was out of line. Her conduct was actually quite outrageous. But trauma from seeing Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (however the hell you spell their names) getting it on? She's a teenage girl. She liked it.

[Krista]

But trauma from seeing Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (however the hell you spell their names) getting it on? She's a teenage girl. She liked it.

 

 

Lol...

 

That's like.. disturbing but I laughed anyway...

 

 

Krista

[Morganx]

I was a bit disturbed too, but only because I wasn't in the film.

[Conner]

I was a bit disturbed too, but only because I wasn't in the film.

 

 

 

Yeah, Jake and me would have taken up raunching....I mean ranching.

[Graeme]

I, personally, was disturbed by the movie, and I strongly recommended to my wife that she not see it -- she would also have become upset. However, the reasons for both of those things shouldn't affect the girl in question (I hope).

 

I was disturbed because I saw myself in the lead characters -- and how close I have come at times to destroying my marriage in the way that they destroyed theirs. My wife would have been distressed by the pain the wives in the story felt when they learnt the truth about their husbands.

 

It is possible that the girl in question could have been traumatised in the same way. The article doesn't say why she has her grandparents has guardians -- what happened to her parents?

 

I'm not saying that that is what has happened, but I'm pointing out that it is possible for some people to traumatised by events that don't affect the majority. Equally, the substitute teacher could not have been expected to know that sort of detail about her students.

[MMandM]

Grandparent rights in some states have been declared unconstitutional after the U.S. Supreme Court considered the subject matter in Toxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000).

 

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getc...30&invol=57

 

Generally, a fit parent has the fundamental right to the care, custody, and control of his/her children to the exclusion of all others. So the question is where is this child

[Razor]

I assumed the grandparents were her guardians. Is that not the case?

[Graeme]

The article stated that the grandparents were her guardians. I was asking the question why. It is possible (though, I'll concede, unlikely) that her parents split up because the husband came out of the closet, and that for some reason the grandparents ended up as the guardians. In this case, Brokeback Mountain could very well be traumatic to the girl in question. The point I was trying to make was that just because most people would not be traumatised, that doesn't mean that no one would be. It is possible that there was a legitimate injury here -- though the grandparents seem to have gone for an obscenely large amount of money as recompense.

[Razor]

Even if that were precisely the case, that's not a legitimate reason to ask for that much money. I don't consider being reminded of something you have issues with "trauma". I consider trauma being more like watching your mother get disemboweled, or seeing an insane trucker eat your pet... you know, something really nutso. So it wasn't a good decision, yeah, fire that sub and get on with life. I dislike when people make a mountain out of a molehill, especially when money is likely their incentive.

[GaryKelly]

The Brokeback Mountain law suit is a joke. On the other hand, so are all homophobes. Grade 8 kids know more about sexuality these days from simply mixing with other kids at school than I knew when I was in my 30s. :wacko: Psychological damage and trauma? Well, boys and girls, that's what ignorance attracts.