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SD high school student forced to pee in bucket wins $1.25M lawsuit

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Hawkeye10

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The San Diego Unified School District has been ordered to pay more than $1.25 million in damages to a former student forced to urinate in a bucket after her request for a bathroom break was denied.

A Superior Court jury on Wednesday decided in favor of the former Patrick Henry High School student who sued the district and a teacher over the 2012 incident she said fueled gossip, lewd texts, depression and a suicide attempt.

San Diego Unified denied her initial claim seeking $25,000.

“Something like this never should have happened to a 14-year-old girl just entering high school,” said attorney Brian Watkins. “She took the stand and told a really embarrassing story, she told the jury how this has affected her life and how she is still working through issues.”
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SD high school student forced to pee in bucket wins $1.25M lawsuit - The San Diego Union-Tribune

This is why we cant have nice things, a broken legal system and victim culture.

BOO
 
Hawkeye10 said:
SD high school student forced to pee in bucket wins $1.25M lawsuit - The San Diego Union-Tribune

This is why we cant have nice things, a broken legal system and victim culture.

BOO
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No. Not at all. The reason we can't have nice things is that, sometimes, there are idiots in charge. Having been a 14-year-old girl in my life, I can only imagine the embarrassment this young girl suffered. The teacher should have been ashamed of herself. The district should have settled quickly for the $25,000. And if I were a taxpayer in that district, I would be beside myself that MY district treated an impressionable girl in that manner.
 
MaggieD said:
No. Not at all. The reason we can't have nice things is that, sometimes, there are idiots in charge. Having been a 14-year-old girl in my life, I can only imagine the embarrassment this young girl suffered. The teacher should have been ashamed of herself. The district should have settled quickly for the $25,000. And if I were a taxpayer in that district, I would be beside myself that MY district treated an impressionable girl in that manner.
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$1,250,000 is A LOT of embarrassment.

Also, if we are raising young girls to become suicidal if they get told to pee in a bucket then we have much bigger problems than this teacher.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
$1,250,000 is A LOT of embarrassment.

Also, if we are raising young girls to become suicidal if they get told to pee in a bucket then we have much bigger problems than this teacher.
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What part of "it should have never happened" do you not get?

The school got off cheap.
 
There's no way this should have been a $1.25M settlement. That's insane.

The trauma the girl suffered was due to other kids, not peeing in a bucket.


One other thing....."art teacher" explains a lot.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
$1,250,000 is A LOT of embarrassment.

Also, if we are raising young girls to become suicidal if they get told to pee in a bucket then we have much bigger problems than this teacher.
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I hate frivolous lawsuits and attempts at jackpot justice, but in this case, it sounds like a lawsuit was perfectly justified. The bigger problem here is not the girl, but some dumbass teacher that thought this was a good idea. She's the adult in this situation and should never have let it get to that.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
$1,250,000 is A LOT of embarrassment.

Also, if we are raising young girls to become suicidal if they get told to pee in a bucket then we have much bigger problems than this teacher.
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Lutherf said:
There's no way this should have been a $1.25M settlement. That's insane.

The trauma the girl suffered was due to other kids, not peeing in a bucket.


One other thing....."art teacher" explains a lot.
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Oh come on, really?

The number is too big?

If they forced my hypothetical daughter to do this, and she committed suicide, i imagine that it would come nowhere close to compensating my pain and suffering.
 
X Factor said:
I hate frivolous lawsuits and attempts at jackpot justice, but in this case, it sounds like a lawsuit was perfectly justified. The bigger problem here is not the girl, but some dumbass teacher that thought this was a good idea. She's the adult in this situation and should never have let it get to that.
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I hope that the people responsible were fired and prevented from ever working in education or any other profession dealing with children.

EDIT: Just read the article, that teacher was nuts. She also no longer works for the school.
 
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X Factor said:
I hate frivolous lawsuits and attempts at jackpot justice, but in this case, it sounds like a lawsuit was perfectly justified. The bigger problem here is not the girl, but some dumbass teacher that thought this was a good idea. She's the adult in this situation and should never have let it get to that.
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Jackpot justice is a good term for it. A lawsuit may be justified, maybe, but not an award like this.

Public schools are publicly funded. Even if liability insurance covers awards like this, those awards drive the insurance costs (it's not like insurance companies just print the money they pay out). There should be some very reasonably conservative limits to what people can even claim against the taxpayers when a public employee screws up at his or her job.

For people who are injured on public property, the taxpayers can cover the medical bills and related direct verifiable financial losses from the injury, plus maybe a small percentage extra. For "emotional suffering," the limit should be very small. Less than $10,000. For wrongful death, maybe I could see awards in the hundreds of thousands. But there should be laws that just draw a line in the sand.

Fire the teacher and award the kid $10,000, I'd shrug and assume that's reasonable. $1.25 million is insane and idiotic. This "jackpot justice" undermines the legitimacy of our legal system.
 
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Good for her.
 
X Factor said:
I hate frivolous lawsuits and attempts at jackpot justice, but in this case, it sounds like a lawsuit was perfectly justified. The bigger problem here is not the girl, but some dumbass teacher that thought this was a good idea. She's the adult in this situation and should never have let it get to that.
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From what I saw the teacher believed that she was making a good faith effort to follow school rules....seems she was new, maybe not trained too well, but there was no desire to harm the child.
 
Omg, i had to endure a lot worse than that in high school. Where's my winning lottery ticket?

I'm sure a lot of others are thinking the same
 
chromium said:
Omg, i had to endure a lot worse than that in high school. Where's my winning lottery ticket?

I'm sure a lot of others are thinking the same
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We took our gym showers communal, naked, and with gym teachers who thought that they were on a mission to toughen up their men...

Hell ya....
 
Hawkeye10 said:
From what I saw the teacher believed that she was making a good faith effort to follow school rules....seems she was new, maybe not trained too well, but there was no desire to harm the child.
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Teacher was a moron devoid of common sense.

Good faith my ass - coached answer that did not work.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
We took our gym showers communal, naked, and with gym teachers who thought that they were on a mission to toughen up their men...

Hell ya....
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Just because you enjoyed it does not mean that others did.
 
SMTA said:
Teacher was a moron devoid of common sense.

Good faith my ass - coached answer that did not work.
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Could be, but the report I saw indicated that both sides agreed to that version of history.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
We took our gym showers communal, naked, and with gym teachers who thought that they were on a mission to toughen up their men...

Hell ya....
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None of this is about you.
 
beefheart said:
None of this is about you.
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Actually it is..... as a citizen I always have the right to have an opinion on such matters and comment on such matters, any my life experience informs me on what is reasonable and what is not.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Actually it is..... as a citizen I always have the right to have an opinion on such matters and comment on such matters, any my life experience informs me on what is reasonable and what is not.
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No, its not about you. You didn't experience this, OK? No more than when a city bus hits and kills a pedestrian. Your opinion is yours, and I think it is pretty ignorant. The school got out cheap.
 
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