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Doe v. California Lutheran High School Ass'n (Cal. Ct. App. - Jan. 26, 2009)

By Shaun Martin

I know that if I taught at a private high school -- say, for example, the California Lutheran High School in Wildomar -- I'd definitely spend my valuable time looking up the myspace pages of all the female students in my class to see if any of them said that they were bisexual or in love with another female student.

Yes, and if I were the principal of said high school, and a teacher discovered that two female students had in fact so identified themselves, I'd definitely call them into my office and interrogate them about whether they had a consensual lesbian relationship. And if they admitted that they had, in fact, kissed each other and felt that they were in love, you can be darn sure that I'd expel them. 'Cause, sure, we've had male students who used drugs or alcohol and stuff like that who we've only given, say, temporary suspensions to. But a teenage woman questioning her sexuality and -- gasp! -- maybe being a lesbian?! The horror. We're definitely kicking you out.

Look, is a private high school a "business enterprise" subject to the Unruh Act? Justice Richli says it's not, and it's hard to disagree with that. So the law says what the law says. Which means this case comes out the way it does.

I could say a lot of things at this point. But I'll constrain myself to the following. I would not have acted as the principal and board of directors of the California Lutheran High School did here. And both hope and believe -- firmly -- that history will rightly judge their conduct. If for no other reason, I'm glad this opinion is published.

Full post as published by California Appellate Report on January 26, 2009 (boomark / email).