Hot on the heels of the national Day of Silence, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has notified the Memphis public schools that one of their principals violated the rights of two of her students by revealing publicly they were gay.
Daphne Beasley, the principal of Hollis F. Price Middle College High School, in September asked her staff over the school intercom to provide her the names of all “hetero and homo” couples in the school, so she could monitor public displays of affection.
She then posted the names of the students for all to see. In the process, she outed a gay couple to students, teachers and their parents. The two had just started a discreet relationship.
In the letter mailed yesterday, the ACLU charged that Beasley had violated the students’ constitutional rights to equal protection, freedom of expression and association, due process and privacy. The letter demands a response by May 9 to five demands, or the ACLU will pursue legal action.
The demands are (1) that policies be implemented to prevent similar acts in the future, (2) that the boys in question be compensated for the harm they suffered by being outed, (3) that Beasley be reprimanded, (4) that any records pertaining to the outed couple be removed from school districts records, and (5) that apologies be made to all the students on the couples list.
