March 06, 2012

Navajo teen humiliated over pregnancy

ACLU: Pregnant Teen Humiliated At School

Mom: School Director Announced Teen's Pregnancy At AssemblyThe American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a 15-year-old Navajo girl who said she was kicked out then humiliated at a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school because she was pregnant.

Vicky Hicks, eighth-grader Shantelle Hicks' mother, said when she told the boarding school her daughter was pregnant back in October, administration said she was no longer welcome there "due to the fact she's a bad example to other female students."

After getting an attorney involved, Vicky Hicks said her daughter was allowed back in school. But soon after, Shantelle Hicks said she was publicly humiliated in a school-wide assembly.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of Shantelle Hicks, who attends Wingate Elementary School in McKinley, N.M., said she was publicly embarrassed at an assembly by the school director and another staff member over her pregnancy.

According to the complaint, Shantelle Hicks was forced to stand before the entire school at an assembly while they announced that she was pregnant, even though only three school staffer members knew.
Comment:  We don't know if the school humiliated Hicks because she's Navajo. Or if it would humiliate anyone as part of the right-wing war on women sweeping the country.

My guess is that incidents like this happen more often to minority students. Americans think they're more "shameful" than white girls who do the same thing.

For more on the subject, see Cherokee Teenage Pregnancy Film.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In general, social conservatives don't like the idea that when they talk to their kids about (insert sex-related issue) and then the kids contradict them...and the kids are right.

Wait, she's in middle school? There's got to be some (probably very horrible) story there.

Rob said...

For more on the subject, see:

http://www.care2.com/causes/teen-sues-school-for-announcing-she-was-pregnant-at-assembly.html

Teen Sues School For Announcing She Was Pregnant At Assembly

Hicks is suing the school for violating Title IX, which prohibits sex and pregnancy discrimination in education. The school is saying that the move was justified, as otherwise she would be setting a bad example for other students. But Hicks’ lawyers argue that the public outing was punishment for her refusing their offer of a transfer to an “alternative school.”