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The American Civil Liberties Union has sued Smith-Green Community School Corp. and a principal in federal court on behalf of two girls punished for summer postings on MySpace.
Filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Fort Wayne, the lawsuit claims the two girls, both sophomore fall-sport athletes, were suspended from extracurricular activities for the entire school year because of sexually suggestive photographs posted on their pages on MySpace, a social networking site on the Internet.
The lawsuit names the district and Churubusco High School Principal Austin Couch, both individually and in his official capacity, and alleges that Couch and the district violated the girls’ First Amendment rights by how the situation was handled.
The ACLU seeks to have the case handled as a class-action on behalf of all students participating in, or who may participate, in extracurricular activities at Smith-Green Community Schools, according to court documents.
According to the lawsuit, the two girls, identified only by initials, participated in a sleepover this summer with friends from Churubusco High School.
During the sleepover, the girls took pictures of themselves “pretending to kiss or lick a large multi-colored novelty phallus shaped lollipop” as well as pictures of themselves in lingerie with dollar bills tucked in their clothing, according to court documents.
The girls posted the pictures on their MySpace pages, visible only to their online friends.
“They intended this to be humorous and all the participants considered it to be so,” the lawsuit said. “There was nothing in the pictures that identified the participants as attending Churubusco High School and there was no reference whatsoever in the pictures to (the school).”
But an unknown person with access to the photos downloaded them, printed copies and gave them to school workers including Couch, who promptly suspended the two girls from all athletic and extracurricular involvement for the year, according to court documents.
The school’s student handbook says the principal may bar students from participating in athletics if their conduct “in or out of school reflects discredit upon Churubusco High School … or creates a disruptive influence on the discipline, good order, moral or educational environment,” according to the lawsuit.
The students’ parents appealed to Couch, who told the girls they could reduce their punishment by 25 percent if they would submit to three counseling sessions and apologize individually to the Athletic Board, an all-male group made up of the varsity coaches.
“The Athletic Board could only lessen the punishment. It could not stop the girls from receiving some punishment for their out of school behavior which was in no way disruptive of the school,” the lawsuit said.
An attempt to appeal to the school superintendent went nowhere, according to court documents.
The girls went to the three counseling sessions, and the reports were turned over to Couch.
“The forced counseling was humiliating to the plaintiffs and being forced to appear before the coaches to apologize for their intended humorous photographs … was profoundly embarrassing,” according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs seek a jury trial.
“The punishment … for expressive activity taken place outside of the (schools) which activity did not disrupt in any way educational activity violated the First Amendment,” according to court documents.
And because the policy exists, it is unconstitutional, the lawsuit alleges.
On behalf of the girls, the ACLU is asking a judge to prevent the school system from continuing to punish the two students and from interpreting the conduct policy to allow such punishment, as well as expunging all references to the matter from their records, according to court documents.
School officials declined to comment on the lawsuit, having not yet read it.
Messages left for Ken Falk, legal director for ACLU of Indiana, were not returned Tuesday.
