Lambda Legal Urges Court to Uphold Decision Finding Poway Unified School District Responsible for Not Protecting Lesbian and Gay Students

(San Diego, November 21, 2006) — In papers submitted today, Lambda Legal urged the California Court of Appeal (Fourth District) to uphold a jury decision that found that former Poway High School students were subjected to relentless harassment because they are gay and lesbian.

“All parents expect that their children will be safe and protected at school and all schools in California are required to take effective measures to achieve that environment,” said Brian Chase, Lambda Legal Staff Attorney based in its Western Regional Office and lead attorney on the case. “Even after their mothers complained about their kids being harassed because they are gay and lesbian, the school district did little to nothing to protect Joey or Megan, which is why the jury in the trial court ruled against the Poway Unified School District.”

Joey Ramelli and Megan Donovan were students at Poway High School, a school in the Poway Unified School District in northern San Diego County. Over the course of their junior year other students relentlessly taunted them with antigay slurs and Joey was even physically assaulted and his car was vandalized. The harassment suffered by Megan and Joey was so brutal that they both had to drop out of Poway High School and completed studies toward their high school diploma at home.

Although Donovan and Ramelli reported the harassment to school officials, the jury in the trial court found that the officials took “minimal or no action at all” when they reported the incidents. Further, the jury found that the harassment that Joey and Megan suffered was so “severe and pervasive” that they awarded a combined $300,000 to the students.

“I kept a log of the times when I was called 'fag’ and other derogatory words and when I was physically assaulted or my life was threatened,” Ramelli said. “Hardly a day went by that I didn’t get shoved or called a name, so there was no way that anyone could question that what was happening to me was a serious, constant problem. I don’t want future gay and lesbian students at Poway to suffer from the same harassment I went through.”

Joey and Megan’s case is the latest lawsuit Lambda Legal has taken on to help secure a safe environment for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students at school. Lambda Legal has created a tool kit to help LGBT students know their rights at school and to help educators and other adults become aware of some of the issues that LGBT students face. The tool kit can be found on Lambda Legal’s “Out, Safe & Respected” Web site.

Staff Attorney Brian Chase, based in Lambda Legal’s Western Regional Office in Los Angeles, is the organization’s lead attorney on the case. Lambda Legal’s Deputy Legal Director Hayley Gorenberg and cocounsel Paula S. Rosenstein and Bridget J. Wilson of the law firm Rosenstein, Wilson & Dean, P. L. C. in San Diego, join him on the case.

The case is Donovan and Ramelli v. Poway Unified School District.

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Contact: Mark Roy: 212-809-8585 ext. 267

Lambda Legal is a national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education and public policy work.