Gay' cowboy love scenes 'traumatize' schoolgirl, 12
Pastor Dale Morgan
Gay' cowboy love scenes 'traumatize' schoolgirl, 12*
Family sues district for $500,000 after 'Brokeback' shown in class
Posted: May 14, 2007
Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal portray cowboys who fall in love with
each other in 'Brokeback Mountain'
A 12-year-old girl who says she was traumatized when her teacher showed
the film "Brokeback Mountain" featuring love scenes with homosexual
cowboys is suing the Chicago Board of Education for $500,000.
"What happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class," is
what the substitute teacher told eighth-grade students at Ashburn
Community Elementary School after showing the R-rated movie, according
to a lawsuit filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court.
According to reports, the student, Jessica Turner, claims she suffered
psychological distress after watching the movie, which stars Heath
Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two cowboys who fall in love and includes
love scenes between the two men and between the men and their wives.
"It is very important to me that my children not be exposed to this,"
Turner's grandfather and guardian, Kenneth Richardson, told the Chicago
Tribune. "The teacher knew she was not supposed to do this. ... It's
like I told the principal, she should have better control over her
teachers."
The suit names Ashburn Principal Jewel Diaz and the substitute teacher,
known only in the complaint as Ms. Buford, as well as the board, and
alleges negligence, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of
emotional distress.
It states Buford showed the video without permission from parents and
guardians.
Richardson told the Tribune his granddaughter was traumatized after
watching the movie and told him, "They made me watch this bad movie."
In the fall of 2005, he says he complained to Diaz about reading
material that included curse words.
"This was the last straw," Richardson said of "Brokeback."
"I feel the lawsuit was necessary because of the warning I had already
given them on the literature they were giving out to children to read. I
told them it was against our faith."
In May 2006, an English teacher in Kentucky was under investigation for
showing her students a clip from the controversial film.
The school district later settled a lawsuit that resulted in
anti-harassment training for all staff and students.
In March 2006, a high-school student in Oregon produced a film based on
"Brokeback Moutain" for a class assignment that included two boys in bed
together. He showed his film to his Marine Biology class then was called
into a meeting with three vice principals and told he was being
transferred to a local community college to finish out his senior year.
He later was allowed to return, however.