No Injunction on God’s Plan in School

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (CN) - A West Virginia state judge refused a high school student's request for an injunction against her principal, who allegedly threatened her college scholarship after she complained about a religiously based, abstinence-only mandatory lecture at school.

Katelyn Campbell sued Kanawha County Schools, Superintendent Ronald Duerring and George Washington High School principal George Aulenbacher, in Kanawha County Court.

She claims that Aulenbacher called her into his office and told her, "How would you feel if I called your college and told them what bad character you have and what a backstabber you are?"

Campbell has been accepted to Wellesley College and has been granted scholarships and other financial aid.

Campbell claims Aulenbacher was retaliating for her complaint about a mandatory assembly featuring nonparty Pam Stenzel, who asked students "to embrace God's plan for sexual purity."

The lecture was paid for by Believe West Virginia, a faith-based nonprofit, the complaint states.

Campbell says in the complaint that Stenzel's presentation was "consistent with her online, promotional videos in which she quotes false statistics that have been debunked in numerous articles and publications criticizing Stenzel's religious agenda, accuracy and credibility."

Campbell claims Stenzel's remarks included: "if you are on birth control, your mother probably hates you"; "small word of warning for our ninth-grade girls who will date anything that walks"; and "condoms aren't safe, never have been, never will be."

Campbell, who is student body vice president, went to local media with her complaints about the mandatory lecture, claiming it violated curriculum requirements, and that teachers made a "human barricade" preventing students from leaving.

The story garnered national media attention, and CNN asked to speak with Campbell.

But before that interview could take place, Aulenbacher threatened to call Wellesley, Campbell said in the complaint.

In an April 23 hearing in court, Aulenbacher denied that he had threatened Campbell," according to the Charleston Gazette. He claimed that he had been "presenting a scenario, saying 'How would you like it if [I contacted Wellesley] without you even knowing?'", allegedly because Campbell went to the media without talking to him first.

Kanawha County Judge Duke Bloom refused to grant the injunction on Monday.

"(T)he Court would like to emphasis (sic) that sometimes parties are too quick to run to the courthouse to resolve matters like the one presented in the instant case," Bloom wrote, according to the Gazette.

"It is clear to the Court that this matter would have been better addressed by Kanawha County Schools, where the day to day administration of the school system is most properly addressed."

Campbell was represented by Michael Callaghan, with Neely & Callaghan, in Charleston.

Campbell told the Gazette that many students called the assembly distasteful "slut shaming."

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