© KOB TV
Shantelle Hicks, a 15-year-old from Gallup, N.M. claims she was first forced to leave the Wingate Elementary School and then publicly outed as being pregnant in front of all students and employees, KOB-TV reports.
Wingate Elementary is a public boarding school for Native American children from kindergarten through 8th grade.
Now, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, Hicks has filed suit against the school, claiming they violated her constitutional rights. According to the complaint, school officials kicked Hicks out of school after learning of her pregnancy, but readmitted her four days later when the ACLU of New Mexico informed the school that it's illegal to deny a student access to education for being pregnant.
But two weeks after her readmission, a school counselor and the director of the middle school forced the teen to stand before the middle school assembly and announced her condition -- allegedly before anyone but her sister knew.
"It was so embarrassing to have all the other kids staring at me as I walked into the gymnasium," said Hicks, according to KOB. "I didn't want the whole school to know I was pregnant because it's not their business, and it wasn't right for my teachers to single me out."
According to the suit, school officials informed Hicks that she would be a "bad example" to other students, and requested she attend another school, a Washington Post local report states.
"It is outrageous that educators would subject a young woman in their care to such cruelty," ACLU of New Mexico cooperating attorney Barry Klopfer said, according to the Indian Country Today Community Network.
The girl's mother, Vicky Hicks, says her daughter's public humiliation was wrong.
"[Students] shouldn't be treated differently because they're pregnant," Hicks told KOAT-TV.
The lawsuit was filed on March 6th and seeks punitive damages and declaratory relief for violation of constitutional rights to equal protection and of the Title IX prohibition against sex and pregnancy discrimination in education.
Reader Comments
in a public boarding school? Who is the father? She is a minor. If the father is a teacher or other adult, there is a crime going on here.
Of course they shouldn't have done what they did. But where is the rest of the story? Who is investigating the possible child rape here?
How can you even ask such a question? Do you live on another planet?
Funny how everything reminds me of a story these days. Anyway, when I knocked up my girlfriend/1st wife (pastors daughter) we were forced to announce it and appologize in front of the entire congregation. Then we were forced to teach our youth group about the horrors of what we had done. It was a hoot. The absolutely funniest part was when my girlfriend/now ex-wife first told her parents - she got a spanking. I've always wondered what exactly they thought the spanking might accomplish? Oh well. There isn't really any point to my story, other than we moved on. 2 weeks ago my oldest daughter was married, she's 21. In any case, the grownups need to feel like they're doing the right thing, and being set up as a bad example isn't the worst thing that can happen. At least she didn't have to teach her friends about premarital sex and the consequences while the friends try to keep from laughing so hard they pee themselves... One girl had to excuse herself (we could here her bellowing laughter down in the church basement) In the face of political correctness I guess it's hard to approve the school officials actions, but reality is - it's not really a good idea to get pregnant/fornicate so young. (Ha, ha, ha I said 'fornicate' out loud!) Been there, done that!
An apparent Native American youth - admittedly surmised because the majority of boarding school attendees in this area are Native American - is impregnated while attending a boarding school in the Four Corners Region. The novelty? This is only the sixth or seventh generation in which such activities have occurred. How nice that the media has finally found their outrage. I suspect their concern has little to do with an attempt to seek redress or support for the youth and her kin and, rather, much to do with the selling of some modern meme of contemporary, pious, and pedantic para-moralisism glossing over the real newsworthiness of such a sad story. "Those poor natives... first we have to give them God and now this."