Students sue Puyallup student newspaper for naming them in story on sexual experiences

Four current and former high school students filed a lawsuit against the Puyallup School District today claiming they were harassed and called "sluts" and "whores" after a student newspaper printed a story that detailed their sex lives.

The two current and two former Emerald Ridge High students said that JagWire reporters did not have their consent to print their testimonials on their sexual experiences earlier this year, the lawsuit states. The students, who were identified by name in the article, claim they were sexually harassed, mocked and jeered by other students after the story was published.

In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma the students are seeking an undisclosed financial sum.

"This is a high school journalism class that is supposed to be supervised and the journalism instructor is letting the students do whatever they want with the paper," said Nathan Roberts, whose law firm, Connelly Law Offices, is representing the four students.

Karen Hansen, spokeswoman for the Puyallup School District, said today that the district hasn't seen the lawsuit and couldn't respond. She also declined to comment on the newspaper story.

Roberts compared the quotes that ran in the story to "graffiti on a bathroom wall."

The four were named in a February story about Emerald Ridge students' sex lives.

Reporters for the school newspaper went around campus asking students details about their experiences with sex, the lawsuit said. Students who were quoted "understood that their names would be withheld and their candid answers would be anonymous," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit blames journalism instructor Kevin Smyth for failing to take any action to protect the students named in the piece. After the piece ran, student journalists allegedly destroyed digital recordings "that would have confirmed that no permission was ever given or requested" to use the students' names, the lawsuit said.

"Plaintiffs were mocked, jeered and called 'sluts' and 'whores' and subject to ongoing sexual harassment, humiliation and embarrassment," the lawsuit said.

The four students and their parents filed a claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, against the school district on May 8, Roberts said. Since then, two of the students have graduated, but the other two are still at Emerald Ridge, he added.

"It's not about money, it's about making the Puyallup School District aware that this personal, private information shouldn't be published in a student newspaper," Roberts said.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com