Posted on 2/13/2004, 6:50:58 PM by george wythe
A judge cleared the way for a gay teenager to try to prove in court that the school he attended expelled him for admitting his sexual orientation to a teacher.
Palm Beach Circuit Judge David Crow turned down a demand for arbitration by Jupiter Christian School on Wednesday. The order appears to allow Jeffrey Woodard and his mother, Carol Gload, to pursue their suit against the school.
The school says it asked him to leave because he was a low-achieving student with behavioral problems and his fees weren't paid.
A state court judge has cleared the way for a gay teenager to try to prove in court that the Christian school he attended expelled him for admitting his sexual orientation to a teacher.Palm Beach Circuit Judge David Crow turned down a demand for arbitration by Jupiter Christian School in an order signed Wednesday.
The order appears to allow Jeffrey Woodard and his mother, Carol Gload, to pursue their breach of contract suit against Jupiter Christian. The case that upset the small Palm Beach County community erupted last October after the school sent a letter to Gload expelling her son and she went to court.
A month later Jupiter Christian administrators demanded arbitration based on the document parents sign when they enroll their children. Jupiter claims administrators asked Woodard to stop attending the school not because of his sexual orientation, but because he was a low-achieving student with behavioral problems and his fees were not paid.
On Wednesday Judge Crow stated that arbitration is not required because the agreement Gload signed at enrollment called for all parties' signatures, and neither Woodard, his father or a school representative signed it.
"Gload did not sign the document on behalf of (Woodard) and did not intend to bind him to any arbitration agreement," the order states. "The court finds that there was no binding agreement to arbitrate."
Gload called the order a victory for her son, who is 18 and now attends Jupiter High. "We're pleased and thankful Jeffrey will now have an opportunity to have his day in court."
Saying her son suffers from the expulsion, Gload would not allow him to comment.
"Jeff is still struggling and trying to come to terms with this. I really don't want to discuss anything about him personally," said Gload.
Jupiter Christian attorney John Bryan said he is pleased with the order, which he interpreted as dooming the case.
"The judge has now ruled there is no contract," said Bryan. "If there isn't a contract, they have no reason to sue the school for breach of contract," said Bryan. "The next step is to dismiss the complaint."
Woodard's attorney, Trent Steele, noted that the order states Gload did not sign an arbitration agreement, not that Gload did not sign a contract with the school. Steele said the Aug. 18, 2003, expulsion letter with the school's letterhead sent to Gload is proof the school admitted Woodard.
"Obviously there was a contract of some form here because they allowed Jeffrey to enroll, accepted him as a student and sent him a letter expelling him," said Steele. "They wanted to make this secret and private. The judge's decision to allow this to be heard in a public forum was the right thing to do."
(Resisting urge to make obvious Uranus joke)
What would happen if this scumbag has a house & about 50 people took a walk over there & fell. Gotta be a way to get back at these scumbags that drag good people thru the courts.
Going by memory here, I recall that both the mother and the boy are Christians. They even went to Christian counselors to try get the boy change his orientation.
IIRC, the boy said something to the effect that he was a virgin, and the only reason the school picked on him was because he admitted to having gay feelings when asked by a teacher.
In other words, this was a struggling, immature Christian boy being treated rather harshly by fellow mature Christian officials.
There are other gay kids at the school (3rd grade-12) and they coexist with the others because they DONT TALK ABOUT IT.
This is not a liberal hotbed (north Palm Beach County) so they better try this in West Palm Beach or the jury will take all of 10 minutes to find for the defendant school.
Rather, it looks like all the court ruled on was whether the arbitration agreement was binding.
So, I think this case may well end up being dismissed because discrimination based on sexual orientation may be perfectly legal in Florida.
Okay. Then why sue?
So, I think this case may well end up being dismissed because discrimination based on sexual orientation may be perfectly legal in Florida.
You're probably right.
This is a case of hurt feelings, not legal proceedings.
AFAIK, most states do not actually outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Well decorated, color-coordinated lockers?
Nail polish and makeup.
If it's wrong to impose your morality on someone else,
then why is the homosexual trying to impose his morality through a lawsuit?
If the activist judges believe in a constitutional separation of church and state,
then what are they doing when they deny arbitration to a Christian school?
If tolerance is a virtue,
then why is the homosexual so intolerant?
If morality is relative,
then what makes the gay's morality better than the schools?
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