'Gay' cowboy love scenes 'traumatize' schoolgirl, 12

Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal portray cowboys who fall in love with each other in 'Brokeback Mountain'

A 12-year-old girl who says she was traumatized when her teacher showed the film "Brokeback Mountain" featuring love scenes with homosexual cowboys is suing the Chicago Board of Education for $500,000.

"What happens in Ms. Buford's class stays in Ms. Buford's class," is what the substitute teacher told eighth-grade students at Ashburn Community Elementary School after showing the R-rated movie, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court.

According to reports, the student, Jessica Turner, claims she suffered psychological distress after watching the movie, which stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two cowboys who fall in love and includes love scenes between the two men and between the men and their wives.

"It is very important to me that my children not be exposed to this," Turner's grandfather and guardian, Kenneth Richardson, told the Chicago Tribune. "The teacher knew she was not supposed to do this. ... It's like I told the principal, she should have better control over her teachers."

Principal Jewel Diaz

The suit names Ashburn Principal Jewel Diaz and the substitute teacher, known only in the complaint as Ms. Buford, as well as the board, and alleges negligence, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

It states Buford showed the video without permission from parents and guardians.

Richardson told the Tribune his granddaughter was traumatized after watching the movie and told him, "They made me watch this bad movie."

In the fall of 2005, he says he complained to Diaz about reading material that included curse words.

"This was the last straw," Richardson said of "Brokeback."

"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."

In May 2006, an English teacher in Kentucky was under investigation for showing her students a clip from the controversial film.

The school district later settled a lawsuit that resulted in anti-harassment training for all staff and students.

In March 2006, a high-school student in Oregon produced a film based on "Brokeback Moutain" for a class assignment that included two boys in bed together. He showed his film to his Marine Biology class then was called into a meeting with three vice principals and told he was being transferred to a local community college to finish out his senior year. He later was allowed to return, however.

Read "Brokeback Mountain: Rape of the Marlboro Man" by David Kupelian.

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