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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Student Demands Punitive Damages After School Transfers Her for a Home Video

LOS ANGELES (CN) — An eighth grader demands punitive damages from Long Beach Unified School District, claiming it illegally suspended and transferred her after another student posted on YouTube a harmless skit they made at home, in which their English teacher was killed by a jelly doughnut.

Plaintiff O.Z. says she acted in a video while sleeping over at Student 2's house during Spring Break this year. Student 2 narrated and filmed the skit, and then posted it on YouTube, without informing O.Z., the plaintiff says.

O.Z. was in seventh grade Gifted And Talented Education program at Hughes Elementary School when they shot the video this spring.

The teacher, Googling herself, found the video and sent it to the principal of Hughes Middle School. The school district then suspended and transferred O.Z.

O.Z. says she always got along with her teacher and never was disciplined for misbehaving at Hughes. She says the video was shot for the students' own entertainment, is not threatening or intimidating, that she had nothing to do with posting it on the internet, and did not even know it was posted.

She wants to be transferred back to her home school district, where she has community ties and plays on the soccer team. She and her parents also demand punitive damages. They are represented in Federal Court by Edwin Egelsee of Anaheim Hills.

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