School Sued for Showing "Brokeback Mountain" to 8th Graders

jessica Turner, an eighth-grader at Ashburn Elementary School, claims that she suffered severe psychological distress after seeing the movie "Brokeback Mountain" with her fellow classmates. The film, a three-time Oscar winner, portrays the story of two rugged western cowboys who conceal their illicit homosexual love affair. Turner’s grandparents have stated that the girl was so traumatized by the film’s content that she required psychological counseling and treatment.

Turner along with her grandparents, Kenneth and LaVerne Richardson, are suing the Chicago Board of Education for approximately $500,000 in damages. Allegedly, a substitute teacher, referred to as "Ms. Buford," showed the R-rated film without permission from the students’ parents or guardians. The lawsuit, which was filed in Cook County Circuit Court on Friday, detailed the episode in which a substitute teacher allegedly showed the R-rated movie to her class during the last school year.

According to the lawsuit, the substitute, Ms. Buford, asked a student to shut the door to the classroom before showing the controversial film. Her reasoning? "What happens in Ms. Buford’s class stays in Ms. Buford’s class." Perhaps someone should have told her that it was an elementary school, not Las Vegas.

Kenneth Richardson, the student’s grandfather and legal guardian, was understandably outraged over the incident. Richardson had filed a complaint in 2005 regarding literature used in the West Side school that contained curse words.

"This was the last straw," he said. "I feel the lawsuit was necessary because of the warning I had already given them on the literature they were giving out to children to read. I told them it was against our faith."

Also named in the lawsuit is Ashburn Elementary School Principal Jewel Diaz, who was reported to have known that the film was being shown to students.