Judge declares that being nude in the shower is okay
Court: Student’s rights violated
Brandon Tun and three other Wayne high school wrestlers were photographed while taking showers after a wrestling practice. That student later gave the negatives to Tun and they were subsequently confiscated and developed by school officials. All four wrestlers were then expelled for violating a school rule against public indecency.
[He] could not have violated a school rule against public indecency because a locker-room shower is not a public place, U.S. Magistrate Judge Roger B. Cosbey ruled.
“Tun was taking a shower in a place explicitly designated and designed for that activity and was naturally nude while doing so. To suggest that this conduct constitutes public indecency is the same as saying that everyone who showers at a YMCA or athletic club commits a criminal act in the state of Indiana,” Cosbey wrote.
Even if the photographs were deemed pornographic, school policy does not set expulsion as a penalty for possessing pornography, Cosbey also found.
Although he found that principal Jocelyn Whittaker and expulsion examiner Judith Platz acted arbitrarily, Cosbey dismissed negligence claims against the district. In telling and typical fashion the school district has learned absolutely nothing from this.
Wayne Community Schools spokeswoman Deborah Morgan says that the district plans to appeal the ruling.
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She declined to say whether the ruling would affect the district’s disciplinary procedures.
(Tip credit to Brian Murrey)
School officials are idiots. The boys weren’t hurting anyone, so they should be able to do what they want.
I wonder why the persons who developed the pictures haven’t been arrested for child pornography.
Does the school have a policy against being nude in the shower? Or does it require athletes and PE students to shower — in which case their “public indecency” is mandated under school policy.
More to the point, does the school provide individual shower stalls with locking doors, or have they negligently acted in a manner which forced the boys into a life of crime.
Also — what punishment was meted out to the photographer?
Interesting bit here on the beginning of the story that is even more outrageous.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/5155697.htm
Toni Morris, mother of suspended junior Ryan Kerns, said she was upset at some of the questions administrators asked her son. “They asked him if he was in the habit of people taking photos of him in the (nude). Why is that important?”
Morris said she brought a digital recorder and a tape recorder to the meeting but afterward had the digital recorder and a cassette tape confiscated by school officials.
The death of Western Civilization will not be at the hands of barbarians or terrorists, it will be hands of the lawyer and the teacher on the noose.
By what right did the school confiscate the recorder and tape from the mother? I’d have sued them for theft!!! If she had brought a witness in the form of another adult - would they have kidnaped or killed the witness?
Where do these MORONS come from, and how do they get on these unchecked power trips that supplant the the Constitution, the law, and worst of all, common sense?
The school district that my son goes to forbids showering and the locker room had lockers only.
Hi I can’t believe this but I just found this site today. I’m the mother of one of the boys who was suspended. The one who had her recorders taken away. (which I called the police and they had to return them). I just thought you guys might like an update. The school appealed the decision that Brandon’s due process rights weren’y adhered to and after all was said and done Brandon lost. The judge said the school over reacted but that they violated no rights of Brandon’s. In all they ended up being suspended for 6 weeks. 3 expulsion hearings later we won the right for them to go back to school. I want to thank all of you for your comments. I’m glad it’s over and I hope I never have to deal with the school on that level. It took 1,050 dollars in attorneys fees just to get Ryan back in school. I never went on with a lawsuit and I can’t imagine what Brandon’s attorney fees are. I think it’s crazy that you even have to hire an attorney to get your child back in school. Ryan has since graduated and went on with his life. I have one more son to get through that school system and it won’t come soon enough. I truly believe if everything in the case came out and the recording that I made came out the public would be appalled at the school system. Well thank you all for caring..
When adults behave in such a silly manor, especially those involved with the education process, it only serves to further alienate schoolage boys and girls from those in whom they inherently need for enlightened guidance in these formative years. Kids who, like in this case, rightfully are justified in their belief that their opionion of these circumstances, and their opinion of what is right and wrong is superior to their elders can naturally begin to deviate from social norms in more drastic and harmful ways. How can you look up to and follow the example of such confused adults?
Any school official who makes such an idiotic folly of something so simple should simply not be allowed to be in the charge of youth anymore, and a public disclaimer by the school stating their position against such outrageous rulings. This at least would let the children know that their internal sense of right and wrong is on the right path, and that they do not need to be rebelious in order to believe and act upon truth that should be the same truth to and for all but the idiotic, irrational, or insane. Growing up is difficult enough without throwing a wrench into the process, and this for no reason that can even stand in the same place as the brilliant light of sanity and reason. Within the light of reason, such darkness as was seen in the attitude of the adults here can simply can not co-exist, and cannot but simply vanish like all other illusions the darkness can create, which when the light is turned on simply vanish.
do you have to get nude in the shower?
This is America. You don’t HAVE to do anything except pay taxes.
I am 11 going to high school soon i will never get nude in front of my freinds
Was this at a Fort Wayne school? Which one? That’s insane! Those School officials should be deeply ashamed of themselves. They need to be removed from their postions.
I take showers after athletics cause you smell bad if you don’t and it’s bad being all sweaty in class in your regular clothes. Most boys don’t but me and my freinds do. About 10 of us. And we’re completley naked, duh! If somebody takes pictures of us that wouldn’t be right for them to do that.
i have to laugh at this for one reason…its a frickin’ shower! I just moved to france recently for work and began playing sports after. everyone showers nude. and guess what…nobody cares. yeah i wasn’t used to it at first ( blame my school district and society) its a human body we all have one. and yes, it is much nicer when its clean. its absolutely awful that a child had to compromise his EDUCATION for something so f-ing stupid. great job school board! two thumbs up to you..idiots.