Ellington

Copiah County School district officials are asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that lesbian teen Ceara Sturgis filed after school officials excluded a photograph of her wearing a tuxedo on the senior page of Wesson Attendance Center's yearbook, The Sun Herald reported yesterday.

The school district argues that the U.S. Constitution does not give Sturgis the right to appear in a yearbook.

In August, Sturgis and the ACLU filed a suit accusing Copiah County School District Superintendent Rick Clopton and Wesson Attendance Center Principal Ronald Greer of violating Sturgis' rights under the Educational Amendment of 1972, and the Equal Protection clause of the United States Constitution, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex and sex stereotypes.


Last October, the ACLU submitted a letter to the district on Sturgis' behalf challenging the district's dress code policy. That same month, according to the suit, the district ignored Sturgis' request to wear a tuxedo in her official yearbook photo. Sturgis waited until after the district published its yearbook in the spring to launch the suit.



Read the Jackson Free Press cover story "Ceara's Season," for in-depth coverage on the issue.