Wednesday, July 09, 2003

This is Insane

I really get angry when I think about all the bullshit kids have to endure in school these days.

NEW YORK (AP) School administrators in Washington Heights forced several eighth-graders to be tested for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases after they attended a ''hooky party'' last spring, the New York Civil Liberties Union charged in a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.

''What they did is completely unheard of,'' said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU. ''It violates their right to privacy. It violated their right to go to school. It violated their right not to be subjected to summary punishment.''

Dr. David Bell, a specialist in adolescent medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital's family planning clinic who saw two of the girls, said he was ''outraged'' that Intermediate School 164 demanded confidential medical information from the students.
...

The civil liberties union is representing two of approximately 11 girls who cut school on April 11 and attended a ''hooky party'' where there reportedly was sexual activity, Lieberman said.

''The next school day when they went back to school they were summoned to the principal's office and effectively suspended,'' Lieberman said.

She said the girls were told they had to be tested for pregnancy, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and could not return to school without a doctor's note that included the test results.

One male student also attended the party, but he was not required to be tested for diseases, Lieberman said.