A Chicago eighth-grader appears to have a case against a teacher for screening “only the sexual segments” of the movie “Brokeback Mountain” to her class. Holding the school board vicariously liable could be tougher.

A substitute teacher identified only as Ms. Buford allegedly showed the R-rated film at Ashburn Community Elementary School in May 2006 after warning Jessica Turner and her classmates that “what happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class.” “Brokeback Mountain” depicts a homosexual relationship between cowboys in Wyoming.

“[S]ubjecting Jessica to view an 'R' rated movie with adult themes and strong homosexual content was extreme and outrageous, thereby proximately causing Jessica to suffer severe emotional distress,” Turner and her grandparents say in a complaint that seeks at least $500,000 in damages from Buford and the Chicago Board of Education.

An Illinois appeals court has noted that the legal test for intentional infliction of emotional distress “is so stringent that it is met only if the distress inflicted is so severe that no reasonable person could be expected to endure it.” Giraldi v. Lamson, 563 N.E.2d 956 (1990).

Particularly given her age, Turner, 12, may have enough evidence against Buford to meet that standard. For one thing, the teacher allegedly did not seek permission from the students' parents or guardians to screen the film and, perhaps most significantly,

Ms. Buford deliberately screened only the sexual segments of “Brokeback Mountain.”

But an employer may only be vicariously liable for “the negligent, willful, malicious or even criminal acts of its employees when such acts are committed ... in furtherance of the employer's business.” If Buford screened “only the sexual segments,” that would suggest she was furthering some insidious business of her own.

The complaint says school officials “knew or should have known that Ms. Buford intended to inflict harm to Jessica and her class” by showing the sex scenes. But the plaintiffs are going to have to come up with something a lot more specific than that to support liability against the board.

A false imprisonment claim also seems dubious. The suit alleges only that Buford told a student to close the door before she began screening movie -- which falls short of actually confining Turner to the classroom.

Turner's grandfather, Kenneth Richardson, complained to the school in 2005 about reading material that he said included 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."

By Matthew Heller
5/31/07