Two East Texas softball coaches and the Kilgore school district are facing charges, filed in civil court by the mother of a 16-year-old student, for invading her daughter’s right to privacy after they outed her daughter, according to Courthouse News.
Barbara Wyatt filed the suit on behalf of her daughter, S.W., last year, complaining that softball coaches Rhonda Fletcher and Cassandra Newell aggressively confronted her about an alleged love triangle with one of the coach’s (Newell’s) ex-girlfriends, Hillary Nutt.
S.W. never came out to her mother and the coaches took it upon themselves to bring the alleged relationship to light.
The complaint charges that S.W.’s right to privacy was shattered but the school district is backing its coaches’ by saying that they were “legally obligated to share this information with the parent."
The coaches claim that the only reason they confronted S.W. in March of 2009 was out of concern for S.W.’s age and less about her sexual orientation.
During testimony they also cited that Ms. Nutt was a bad influence on S.W. because she had previously talked about drinking and smoking marijuana. They also spoke up because Ms. Nutt was eighteen-years-old and S.W. was sixteen, making any physical relationship between them a potential crime. Lastly, they felt the rumors were “causing dissension on the softball team."
According to court documents, the district moved for summary judgment, but U.S. Magistrate Judge John Love refused, citing in a 23-page decision that there are "multiple unresolved questions of fact."
Love found that the coaches may have had some reason to divulge information that superseded the student's interest in keeping her sexual orientation private, but there is not enough to make any conclusion at this stage.
"Based on the record before the court, the court cannot conclude as a matter of law that Coaches Newell and Fletcher had a legitimate interest in revealing S.W.'s sexual orientation to her mother that outweighed S.W.'s privacy interest in keeping that information confidential," Love wrote.
Texas Statute § 22.011
"They also spoke up because Ms. Nutt was eighteen-years-old and S.W. was sixteen, making any physical relationship between them a potential crime."I find it ridiculous that not only was this used as a defense/excuse to out her or bring the relationship to the attention of others but that I've yet to find an article where the facts regarding this particular "potential crime" have been clarified. The Texas statute (§ 22.011) that describes what is considered 'a crime', which I disliked much when my daughter was a teen :), allows a 3 year age difference for consensual relations involving minors 14 years and older. And I thought the schools around here had decent math programs... Fail!@Joseph: I was wondering the same thing!
Per christopher2 etc.
16 is not a little young to have a relationship. SW is probably a sophomore and most kids are in relationships as Freshman. I was dating a Senior when I was a sophomore. No difference.I agree with the others and am concerned by the fact that the coach had a relationship with the 18 year old and may have been her coach at the time. I don't know the motivation of the two coaches for outing the student but they were very wrong in doing so. Luckily the mother seems to be standing with her daughter.
Hypocrisy
As an educator, I find this whole situation appalling. As noted above, 16 & 18 year olds co-exist in all high schools. Therefore, most, if not all, states do not criminalized relationships between kids that are only 2 years apart in age. So yeah, it's a violation of privacy. More concerning, as also pointed out, is the apparent prior relationship between the now 18 year old & one of the coaches. Even if the 18 was also 18 when that relationship occurred, it makes me wonder how old the coach is. Either she's not much older & that explains the childish nature of this "triangle" or she's older & highly immature. Either way it's hypocritical. It's also hypocritical, that in Texas, one school chooses to fire a valued coach just apparently for being a lesbian, while in another school a coach with poor judgement, who also happens to be a lesbian, is possibly allowed to continue (not sure about this as it's not clear in this article if that coach is still there). In any case, too bad poor judgement will likely be conflated with being a lesbian by the general public.
What Northeastcasey wrote.
What Northeastcasey wrote. The story says that Ms Nutt was 18 at the time of her relationship with S.W. but also that she was one coach's ex-girlfriend. Now, exactly how old was Cassandra Newell (the coach who claims Ms Nutt is her ex-girlfriend) when she and Ms Nutt were involved? If Ms Newell was so concerned about S.W.'s age in relation to Ms Nutt, I'm thinking that someone might need to take Ms Newell to court for HER inappropriate relationship with an underage girl.
16 and 18
It's a high school folks, lots of 16 & 18 year olds are together. The bigger question is, why was one of these coaches the ex-girlfriend of an 18 year old?
Amazing what creeps like this think they can still get away with, as far as sexual blacmail and manipulation.
yeah, maybe that's a little young.
ouch! 16?
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