Two former Poway High School students are suing the Poway Unified School District (PUSD), alleging the school discriminated against them on the basis of their actual or perceived sexual orientation. The students claim Poway High School administrators did not provide a safe environment for them and were deliberately indifferent to harassment claims they filed while attending the school from 2000 to 2003.

Last November a federal judge ruled the case could proceed before a jury. Opening arguments were heard last week, and several school administrators were cross-examined this week.

On April 26, Joseph “Joey” Ramelli testified in a San Diego Superior Court that he had been harassed and teased starting in his freshman year. Megan Donovan, a co-plaintiff in the case, also testified she had been mistreated and denied a position on the girls’ varsity softball team because she is a lesbian.

Ramelli and Donovan’s attorney, Bridget Wilson, said they are seeking unspecified damages on claims of lost time in high school, emotional distress and loss of basic dignity.

Wilson told the jury in her opening statements last week that Poway administration took minimal or no action at all when Donovan and Ramelli reported the various threats and harassment they experienced at the high school. Wilson said the students were accused of exaggerating and fabricating the abuse by school administration. She disagreed with Poway’s strategies to make the school environment safer for Ramelli and Donovan.

“All of their solutions involved removing the gay kid, getting the gay kid, having someone follow him around, having him pass through classes late, having someone accompany him here or there – it does nothing to change the climate on the campus,” Wilson told the Gay & Lesbian Times.

Attempting to change people’s individual opinions would prove difficult, Wilson said, so she instead offered a potential strategy the school could implement in order to handle discrimination toward GLBT students and others, focusing primarily on changing student behavior.

“You could do some systematic work with the campus on making sure that it’s absolutely clear that hate behavior is not tolerated that focuses on respectful behavior. You’re not going to change people’s minds. It’s very clear that you have people who have personal beliefs that are contrary to the popular opinion of many people,” said Wilson.

Due to their negative experiences on campus, according to the lawsuit, Donovan and Ramelli had no choice but to enter New Directions, a home-schooling program. They participated in the program in their senior year and graduated in 2004.

The lawsuit claims Poway administrators had encouraged both students to leave the school to participate in the New Directions program.

As a result, Wilson contends Donavan and Ramelli were deprived of a standard high school experience.

“That’s the problem … we believe gay and lesbian kids are entitled to have a real high school experience, not one where they’re increasingly isolated from their fellow students in lieu of being protected … Ultimately both of these kids, and I don’t think these kids are different than other kids who’ve experienced harassment, ended up in home-schooling, which I think pretty clearly limits their options,” said Wilson

Jeffery Morris, a member of Poway’s legal defense team, told the Gay & Lesbian Times he would not comment directly on the case since it is still before a jury.

According to a trial brief submitted to the court and to the Gay & Lesbian Times by Morris’ law firm, Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz, there is evidence which will demonstrate Poway administrators did not discriminate against Donovan and Ramelli, and that the school was not “deliberately indifferent” to the harassment they suffered.

“There is considerable evidence that under the circumstances, the administration took steps to investigate the matters in an attempt to resolve the situation,” wrote attorney Paul Carelli on behalf of Stutz Artiano Shinoff & Holtz.

Donovan told the court that during her stint on the junior varsity softball team she felt uncomfortable when other players learned she was gay. She said she complained to the coach but the treatment continued. After she did not make the varsity team in her junior year, her mother, Teresa Shelly, wrote to then-assistant principal and athletic director Thomas Pack claiming it was due to discrimination based on Donovan’s sexual orientation.

A meeting was held on March 27, 2003, to address the concerns Shelly brought up in her letter to Pack. Donovan’s coach and assistant coach explained to her she did not make the team “because of the decline in her work ethic, her lack of commitment to softball, and the simple fact that she was not one of the best players who tried out,” wrote Carelli.

Carelli also wrote Pack investigated Donovan’s claims and determined that there was no discriminatory conduct on the part of the coaches.

Ramelli and Donovan compiled logs of written complaints detailing student-on-student harassment, but Poway’s lawyers contend the complaints weren’t specific enough to place any blame on specific individuals. “Many of the incidents were written in a very vague manner, without identifying the abusing party or the location of the event,” Carelli wrote.

Both sides of the case said the trial is complex. The trial is expected to last another three to four weeks, with school faculty, administrators and students yet to take the stand.