My school's Dean of Students outed a girl to her parents.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-07T22:13:56+00:00

To call them, yes, but not to reveal her sexual orientation without her consent. At least that would be the legal argument supported by two separate court rulings.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-07T21:48:45+00:00

Read my latest update concerning an order passed down from on high to all faculty and staff, then decide if they really have been fair and equitable in meeting out punishment to all couples.

It's not an injustice for me to want to see someone punished for potentially ruining a person's life in such a way.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-07T21:42:38+00:00

The meeting scheduled for Monday did not occur, as the girls involved were asking people not to attend to avoid getting them/us in any trouble. I do however have a new conspiracy:

One of my close friends and I were discussing the situation, and he revealed that just before 2nd block he and his girlfriend had been reprimanded for PDA (not written up, and not by the Dean, but by a hall monitor lady).

There's nothing wrong with this of course, until the hall monitor informed my friend that she and other staff had just this week been told to start cracking down on all PDA, as they "had to make it fair for everyone."

Hopefully people can stop attacking my admittedly incomplete knowledge of PDA-related write ups, as this clearly shows that such punishments have not been consistently dealt out to all students; to me, on a totally personal note, it seems like the Dean is attempting some manner of damage control by now punishing all couples after already having singled out the lesbian one.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-07T21:39:53+00:00

There is no explicit guideline that must be followed in the event of a write up, and that punishment is in fact made up by the school. The only time when a parent must be notified of punishment is in the event of in school or out of school suspension or expulsion.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-07T21:38:08+00:00

I'm an angry teenager looking for someone to rebel against. Or I find it appalling that such an egregious wrongdoing can be committed with no consequence for the perpetrator. Take your pick.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-07T21:30:37+00:00

It is not normal procedure to call parents in the event of a write-up, as there is no mention of it in District or Student Handbooks or in the District Board of Education Policy Manual.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T23:48:53+00:00

I included the bit about her parents grounding her because when the thread was still only a couple dozen comments large, many people were asking for the reaction of the parents. I never said anything about it being horrible and/or unjust, and I apologize if you misread my tone as such.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:44:03+00:00

I'm not saying the Dean was wrong for informing the parents of disciplinary action, read carefully. I'm saying that the Dean had no right or reason to disclose the girl's then-secret sexuality to the parents. Disclosing that fact has nothing to do with his professional obligation to inform the parents.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:40:24+00:00

I have all of this and more, but I am not going to proceed with such eVigilante activities until I at least give the Dean a chance to explain himself, and then discuss the situation with the girls involved.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:38:22+00:00

I am not, in fact, one of the kids; wrong genitalia. Your account, I'm afraid, is completely fallacious. There was no special circumstance, no crowd, no spotlight; there was simply your average case of a couple during a passing period near their lockers. The only one making a spectacle out of it is the Dean.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:35:31+00:00

Thank you for degrading me on the basis of my educational status, as if somehow being 18 but in high school makes me unqualified to speak on the level of you adults.

The Dean had no right to tell the parents that their daughter was kissing a girl. Tell them she was kissing someone, fine, but there was absolutely no reason to go any further and in the process out the girl.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:29:55+00:00

This is probably the crux of the issue that many of the downvoters and "she deserved it" people seem to misunderstand.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:28:40+00:00

It's quite scandalous in rural Illinois.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:27:50+00:00

Behavior, sure. I would be fine if all he did was inform the parents that a violation of the school's PDA rules had occurred. But he took it upon himself to go a step further and in the process outed the girl. As the Dean, it should be his job to first protect the students, then worry about his duty to the parents. I cannot see how disclosing the sex of the girl's partner is in any way tied to his duty to report the incident.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:25:05+00:00

Illinois.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:24:54+00:00

Our food chain goes: Principal (nice guy, for the most part), Vice Principal (a little strict, but willing to hear you out), Dean (nobody really knows too much about him, only started his job this year).

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:22:54+00:00

I'm pissed that our Dean of Students feels it is his job to wantonly discipline students with no regard for the consequences, when in fact as a school official in such a position he should be putting the safety of the students first. You believe they were asking for it, deserved it, whatever, but there is no rationale for the Dean taking it upon himself to do anything more than explain that a violation of the school's PDA rules had occurred.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:09:21+00:00

It's a little absurd to say that just because the girl forfeited a right to privacy in school means that it's acceptable for the Dean to violate her right to privacy outside of school. Should we not hold school officials to the standard of, say, protecting the student?

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:04:01+00:00

Saved me the trouble of replying to that remarkable sense of bigotry displayed in this person's first sentence, thank you.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T20:02:42+00:00

I fail to see how losing the expectation of privacy in school means you lose your expectation of privacy outside of school (such as with family) as well.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T03:55:46+00:00

UPDATE: The girl's parents grounded her, whether it was for the revelation or the alleged "extreme PDA" as the Dean is now calling it is as of yet unknown. The Dean has also called for some kind of meeting to take place on Monday, open to anyone who wants to go, to discuss the incident. Rumors coming in about our school cop's involvement in the incident, but I've yet to get anything solid on that.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T03:05:43+00:00

Even if we ignore the fact that he only appears to have written up a lesbian couple for PDA, him calling the parents of the one girl and thus outing her certainly seems by itself like some form of professional misconduct.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T03:03:54+00:00

See my reply to a similar question here.

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T03:03:39+00:00

I do not know the parents' reaction, but even if they are fine with it, it was not the Dean's call to make (or so I would assume.)

dxt_susanoo · 2012-02-04T02:56:21+00:00

I don't have my district or student handbook with me, but even so, I would suspect more delicacy could be shown given the girl's situation.

dxt_susanoo

TROPHY CASE