Lesbian student loses lawsuit

Garden Grove school officials did not violate the rights of a lesbian high school student when they disciplined her for kissing and groping her girlfriend on campus or when they disclosed her sexual orientation to her mother, a federal judge has ruled.

The ruling, which came almost 10 months after the trial ended, found that Charlene Nguon was treated no differently from straight students.

“The School Defendant’s disciplining of Charlene was not motivated, either in whole or in part, by her sexual orientation,” wrote U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in the Sept. 25 ruling.

A spokesman for the Garden Grove Unified School District declined to comment and referred calls to its attorney, Dennis Walsh.

Walsh said the district planned to file a motion with the court this month seeking repayment of nearly $400,000 in legal fees from the plaintiffs.

“The judge sends a pretty clear message: They had their day in court and they couldn’t prove any of their claims,” he said.

Nguon’s attorneys vowed to appeal.

“There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that their despicable treatment of her was totally caused by their dislike of her sexual orientation,” attorney Dan Stormer said.

In 2005, Nguon filed the suit against the district, administrators and Santiago High School’s then-Principal Ben Wolf, arguing that she and her then-girlfriend were unfairly disciplined for public displays of affection, unlike straight couples, and that Wolf revealed her sexual orientation to her mother.

In his ruling, Selna wrote that heterosexual couples also were disciplined for inappropriate public displays of affection, and that Nguon was not singled out. He did find that Wolf outed Nguon to her mother, which normally would be prohibited, but ruled it was acceptable because Wolf was explaining why Nguon was being punished, as required by the state’s education code.

Nguon and her attorneys said the bright spot in the ruling was that Selna maintained that school officials do not typically have a right to disclose a student’s sexual orientation.

“Even though we did lose the case, we all tried our best, and it wasn’t all for naught,” said Nguon, a second-year student at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. “Something good did come out of it.”

Nguon’s attorneys said that part of their appeal will argue that because Selna ruled that Nguon’s sexual orientation had nothing to do with the discipline Wolf meted out, there should have been no reason for him to disclose her sexual orientation to her mother.

“By the judge’s own logic … it doesn’t make any sense what the judge is ruling here,” said Christine Sun, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, who represented Nguon.

Despite ruling against Nguon, Selna showed sympathy for her.

“There is no doubt that Charlene’s junior and senior years were very difficult times for her, and that dealing with her sexuality and her relationship … took a heavy emotional and psychological toll.

“The self-imposed scars on Charlene’s arm which she revealed at trial were very real; the fact that she considered suicide her senior year was very real,” he wrote. “The result here is no license for intolerance.”

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 seema.mehta@latimes.com