School Settles Gay Discrimination Suit
by 365Gay.com from the Web, July 17, 2004
Des Moines, Iowa, July 16 -- A former high school student who was subjected to physical and verbal abuse over three grueling years has been awarded more than $27,000 to settle a discrimination suit.
Tyler Rothmeyer, 18, claimed he was discriminated against because he is gay.
In a federal lawsuit filed in March he accused the Perry School District, the Perry Police Department, and the City of Perry of willfully allowing him to be abused for more than three years.
The suit outlined hundreds of incidents of verbal and physical abuse by more than three dozen students.
In one incident detailed in the suit, other students urinated on the victim in the shower after gym class, and another described a fight at school that ended with the teen himself being suspended from school and arrested.
The adults who were supposed to protect students from abuse, ranging from teachers to the high school resource officer all ignored or did not take the student's claims of harassment seriously.
Rothmeyer claimed he was wrongfully suspended from school and was falsely arrested when he defended himself against a fellow student who was threatening him and demeaning him with hate-based names.
The U.S. District Court in Des Moines Thursday ordered the school district to pay Rothmeyer $20,000.
The police officer was ordered to pay $7,500.
Rothmeyer chose to be home-schooled earlier this year.
Perry is about 40 miles northwest of Des Moines
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