Friday, September 17, 1999
Students' lawsuit over pregnancies due in court
BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — Two women who could not get into the National Honor Society at Grant County High School in 1998 after becoming pregnant will soon get their day in court.
The two, now college freshmen, cannot seek damages from individual Grant County School Board members, but Somer Chipman Hurston and Chasity Glass will go to trial Oct. 25, when they will seek damages from Grant County Schools.
The women, who filed a federal lawsuit in late 1998, have said they were denied admission because the selection committee knew they were pregnant.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman said that individual school board members would not be held liable but that the school board as a whole would face the possibility of damages.
Attorneys for both sides had a brief, private conference to see whether they could settle, but they were unsuccessful.
“We'll have to hear evidence on all this,” said Judge Bertelsman, noting that the “state of mind” of the board — whether it had a say in the selection committee's decision — will probably be explored at the trial, which could last up to three days.
Out of 33 students considered for induction in spring 1998, Mrs. Hurston (then Somer Chipman) and Ms. Glass were the only two denied membership.
Both had a grade-point average above the required 3.5 and were active in extracurricular activities.
Mrs. Hurston was several months' pregnant, and Ms. Glass already had given birth.
The American Civil Liberties Union is representing them for free. Attorneys say the girls were discriminated against because they became pregnant.
The district has maintained that there was no violation of admission criteria because the high school's National Honor Society chapter wouldn't admit males who they knew were engaging in premarital sex either.
ACLU attorney David Friedman said Thursday that Mrs. Hurston is attending a community college and Ms. Glass is at Morehead State University. Neither was at Thursday's court appearance.
They graduated from Grant County last spring, wearing National Honor Society sashes over their gold commencement robes.
In December, Judge Bertelsman had ruled under a preliminary injunction that the school had to grant them honor society membership while litigation continued.
The judge cited two previous National Honor Society cases that said denying membership because of pregnancy violates a woman's civil rights.
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