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Chelisa Grimes
Undated 2012 photo of Darnell "Dynasty" Young with his mother, Chelisa Grimes.
An openly gay Indianapolis teenager who was expelled after firing a stun gun at school to scare away what he said were bullies is suing the school district, accusing it of failing to stop “relentless, severe harassment” by other students.
A lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis on behalf of Darnell “Dynasty” Young, 17, claims teachers and staff at Arsenal Technical High School ignored his repeated pleas to protect him from ongoing abuse on school grounds.
From the day he arrived at Tech, Plaintiff Dynasty Young was subjected to relentless, severe harassment and abuse by other students because he was perceived as gay and because his clothing, behavior, and demeanor did not fit stereotypical notions of masculinity. He repeatedly reported the abuse to school staff. Rather than take effective measures to protect him, school staff told him that he was to blame for the harassment because of his appearance and told him to change his dress and behavior to conform to stereotypical ideas of masculinity and to be less “flamboyant.”
The Indianapolis School District said its attorneys will review the lawsuit “and respond accordingly.” It said in a statement:
"We are pleased that last week, the Indianapolis Marion County Equal Opportunity agency dismissed its complaint against Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) in the matter of former Arsenal Technical High school student Darnell Young. The agency concluded that IPS provided a sufficient response to the Complaint (it filed on Young’s behalf) and that no further action was appropriate.”
Young often wore some of his mother’s clothes to school, including knee-high boots, purses, rings and bangles. These accessories were permitted under the school’s dress code, the lawsuit says.
Young says fellow students spat at him, called him derogatory names and threw rocks and empty bottles at him because of the way he dressed and what they perceived as unmasculine behavior.
Young’s mother, Chelisa Grimes, says she eventually gave her son a stun gun to protect himself because she feared for his life.
Read the court complaint (PDF)
On April 16, according to the lawsuit, Young was accosted by six male students between classes who yelled at him and threatened to attack him. He fired the stun gun into the air, scaring off the group.
Not long after Dynasty sat down for his next class, a school security officer came into the classroom, cuffed him and escorted him out. The officer remarked, “If you did not dress like this, people would not mess with you,” the lawsuit says.
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Young was expelled for a full school year. The school district later reduced the expulsion, but on the condition that Young transfer to an alternative high school.
Young declined and eventually enrolled at Indianapolis Metropolitan High School, a charter school not affiliated with Indianapolis Public Schools, where he is taking extra classes in an effort to try graduate on schedule in 2013.
“I want to make sure no other student in the Indianapolis Public Schools ever has to go through the kind of abuse that I went through. I am hoping this will get IPS to start treating kids like me with respect and really do something to protect their students,” Young said in a press release issued by the National Center for Lesbian Rights. The center and the law firms of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Waples & Hanger filed the lawsuit.
“My son is a wonderful, sweet, talented young man,” added Grimes. “He deserves a chance to attend school and learn without being terrorized by other students and told that the school will not protect him unless he changes who he is.”
The lawsuit claims violations of federal civil and constitutional rights. It seeks unspecified damages and a reversal of Young’s expulsion.
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Leave a Comment:
For those of you saying it's his fault for being gay, please tie a plastic bag over your head for a few minutes and stop wasting our planet's valuable resources.
Sara-1341575
Dyke are ya?
I didnt say it was his fault for being gay. I don't give a @!$%# whether he is or not. I'm saying he should man up and learn to deal with his problems instead of crying to his momma and bringing a stun gun to school.
How about the bullies man up and stop picking on someone for @!$%#s and giggle?
Sara that is not a very nice thing to say about suffocating. Who are you to decide what is the planet's valuable resource. That is not a very liberal view.
Special rights hits the fan again? When I went to High School I was about 4'8"-4'9" tall, was locked in my locker, thrown out of a 2nd story window, got picked on everyday. I got through it and always stood up for myself even if it meant fighting someone bigger and stronger, didn't need a gun, stun gun or anything else. I excelled at football, basketball and baseball, never let my size get me ahead, just tried harder. Went in the Marine Corps at 4'11", the smallest Marine at the time, got out of boot camp as the second best fit Marine in the Company, and was now 5'7" and a 155 lbs. Played on a airwing football team that was never held under 50 points and never gave up more then 6, played every Jr. College in southern california and they wouldn't play us again the following year. Oversea's played for a Division football team who won the far east championship, also on a volleyball team that won the far east championship, was the captain and only enlisted man on the team, so you deal with life, you over come and don't go oh poor me. If this guy wants to be openly homosexual, he has to expect he won't be popular and deal with it. No gun's, no stun guns and deal with it or hide what you are, not anyone special for what he wants to be.
Amen!
Not being popular is not the same as fearing for your life.
Sounds like the situation of bullying Ben describes is similar to the situation "Dynasty" experienced. Getting a bottle thrown at you and being spit at is not a reason to fear for your life.
yeah, short people are dragged to their death all the time. Its the same treatment as gays get (sarcasm).
Why don't you people create a fag school in a fag community in a fag state (fagafornia).
To deport, I am rolling on the floor laughing my ass off. Thanks for the smile.
Is this the son Obama never had?
This is just another example illustrating that homosexuals are the majority of bullies at school and in the rest of the world. Making false claims of fear, these freaks of nature are using they're emotional dysfunction to attack normal people in a violent and overaly aggressive way.
What ever you say to one of these deviants, they get offended and try to take in out through unnecessary, and overly violent if not deadly force.
Watch, I will be assailed for my comments through they're typical and scripted speech using the false phrases of "hate," "I feel sorry for you,' and then attacking my personal character if not my typing skills, which has nothing to do with the issue that homosexuals are the problem. They are unstable, violent and sadistic.
It grosses me out to think that so many people think that being gay is normal. Kinda hard to reproduce and keep civilization going without making babies. Yes you could go to a sperm bank, that is not normal either. That is an alternative to those who wish to have children the natural way but cant, not for sickos who think that two moms or two dads is normal. Its everything but not normal.
Have fun publicly wallowing in your bigoted depravity. The stuff you type on the internet never goes away. Think about that in 20 years when bigots like you will be the ones in the minority.
in 20 years when bigots like you will be the ones in the minority.
Or the only ones alive. Have you heard of that Queer disease, Aids? I hear it's going around.
we should just shoot at people with a stun gun if they don't like gays wow!watch jessie and all the black skumbags jump on this one.
And I'm sorry people but the government is not responsible for your "feelings". They get hurt.. deal with it
Schools are responsible for punishing violent students and preventing bullying and violence. That's what's at issue here, not just "feelings."
Bill Clinton and the NSGA (National Stun Gun Association) doesn't care about the safety of the children, and they won't stop until they've forced everyone in the country to have stun guns. Why would anyone even need one of those assault stun guns anyway- they're no good for hunting. Nobody needs a 9-volt battery, when there are perfectly good 1.5 volt batteries available that are so much more sensible. There are way too many stun guns out there just floating around. It's too easy for kids to just get their hands on one, and then go power mad on some psycho trip at school. We need to ban and register stun guns.
Just another kid looking for a reason to sue someone because they "discriminated" against him because he's gay.
...after he created a situation and baited his victims.
This country has become such a joke. No wonder the rest of the world laughs at us.
The world laughs at tens of millions of Americans believe the Earth is 6,000 years old.
The world laughs at us because half of all Americans are fixated on the crotches of gay citizens.
The world laughs at us because we're squandering our wealth and our youth on perpetual and mutiple resources wars.
We must put an end to Barack Hussein's bloodthirsty war for oil. All he cares about is big business, bailing out giant nameless, faceless mega-corporation car companies with billions of our tax dollars.
another 4 years of obama, get used to it. if romney gets elected this country will go bankrupt after he out sources every thing.
Not long after Dynasty sat down for his next class, a school security officer came into the classroom, cuffed him and escorted him out. The officer remarked, “If you did not dress like this, people would not mess with you,”
That's like telling 8 year old me "If you did not wear glasses, people would not mess with you." Dynasty can be gay and dress like the other boys and still get bullied. He can be straight and dress like the other boys and still get bullied. Bullies will always look for something to mess with you and make you think that you're not normal.
Only if the 8 year old had perfect eyesight, and he was wearing giant pink-colored vagazzled sunglasses in class and trying to touch the private parts of the other boys.
LOL the security guard was right.
Wear that sh!t in private or suffer the results----
Exactly MetroRider! Bullies will always find a reason to hate and harass, no matter what their victim wears or looks like.
hey sara, @!$%# off. why dont you go tie that bag around your fat ugly head and do us a favor. people are disgusted by heterosexuals, ever wonder why? cuz we are normal you dumbass. youre the ones who are sick and perverted.
He should sue his own mother for saddling him with a girls name. He never had a chance.
Wild, some of these comments are the equivalent of "he wore a hoodie so he deserved it."
sorry, not disgusted by heterosexuals
blah blah blah ...new subject
sick of gay crying...ya got bars ...parades ...even marriage in some states ...shut up allready
Here we go......it begins! I think he/she should be allowed to disrupt the school, show no discipline, no respect for decorum or high school learning. I think it is important he carry a stun gun, wear dresses and lipstick and just be him/her self. Puberty is hard and he can't wait to get his/her start with the Aids Clinic. His/her Mama and his/her self need a good lawyer to break down societal norms and win them millions if not billions of dollars. Next!!!!! while the money lasts come out of the closet and be flamboyant!!!! I need another drink and Hip, Hip!
Look, just open up some gay schools with Gay teachers ...case closed....... Are you gays Happy now?
My son was bullied this year for being short and I notified the school superintendent that I wouldn't stand for my son being bullied. I taught my son how to really hurt someone with a punch and this year on the second day a guy in his class said something to him about his size and then bumped into him twice. My son let it go when he said something to him but not when he bumped into him twice. So my son hit him twice. Once with the left followed by a right. At first they suspended my son for two days but it came down from the superintendent not to suspend him and they ended up putting them in different classes.
Ed you have so many wonderful stories. I just want to hold you hand and dance in the street. Good story and only a story.
Main point he/she brought a stun gun to school ...Hello, and if you don't want to stand out don't be so flamboyant, stop wearing your Mothers dresses, shoes,and jewelry to school. This is just a sick cry from "Dynasty" for attention and giving him a chance to file a law suit and get the $$ for his sex change operation!!! I also blame his Mother for allowing him to leave the house dressed like a woman, she must be some beauty to allow this behaviour. Sachet and flit through the school is a distraction to the other students that are there to learn.
Science, nature, and common sense tells us that the anus is an eliminative organ and not a penetrative organ, unlike the female vagina, which is undoubtedly penetrative in nature. Unlike the female vagina (yoni), the anus cannot stretch in size without tearing the skin, cannot naturally and conveniently accommodate any size penis, and does not naturally lubricate itself to accommodate and facilitate a stroking penis. The female vagina has three layers of skin to accommodate stretching and to prevent itself from tearing, unlike the anus which only has one layer of skin, which when torn due to being stretched (from constant penetration), bleeds.
Anal intercourse tends to stretch and greatly weaken the anal sphincter muscles, producing energy loss. Anal penetration greatly disturbs the balance of vital forces in the body. The downward-moving vital principle of the anus is greatly reversed due to penetration and can lead to serious digestive problems, constipation, irregularity (of bowel movements), and ultimately to cancer of the rectum. Many homosexual men who constantly take it or get it "up the butt" have to wear diaper-like products to catch their fecal waste liquids that drip from their loose and weakened anus, the same as females wear sanitary pads to catch their menstrual fluid.
You obviously don't know science, haven't studied nature, or have enough common sense.
l
I charge $500/hour consulting fee with 2 hours minimum. VISA/ Mastercard accepted.
I don't have to pay for BJ's Joe Blow.
>Young often wore some of his mother’s clothes to school, including knee-high boots, purses, rings and >bangles. These accessories were permitted under the school’s dress code, the lawsuit says.
It looks like he was mentally confused, not gay.
Homosexuality IS a mental illness.
That's great... any other banality you want to surprise us with?
Am I the only one who noticed that the types of clothes/accessories, of his mother's, that he wore to school sound like street walker wear?? I don't care who you are, (gay, straight, man, woman), if any one of those students wore those types of clothing to school they would have been talked about and made fun of. Just because it's ok per the school dress code does not mean it should be worn. Let's stop trying to save the world here and be honest with the fact that he flat out should not have worn that to school! If we as parents didn't do our jobs like we should there would be a whole lot of little girls running around still wearing their princess costumes to school!! He won't be able to get away with wearing that crap to work one day, so how is this different??
Yeah, that is what I was wondering... non of the gay people I know wear their mother's clothes... in public at least.
If he wants to act like a flamer he will be picked on the rest of his life!! Can you not be gay and act normal? I guess not since it is not a normal sexual behavior! If he brought a weapon to school he deserves to be punished...
Whoa!! What happened to all the 2nd amendment rights people?? Don't they claim every one has a right to a gun? Bringing a gun to school should be a 2nd amendment right!!
Hand Guns and Stun Guns are different than Shotguns and Rifles. you have to be 21 to have a Stun Gun. it is not in the 2nd Amendment.
The kid and his mother deserve prison time.
The officer remarked, “If you did not dress like this, people would not mess with you,” the lawsuit says. Isn't that like saying to a woman, if you didn't dress like that you wouldn't have been raped?
NO
That's exactly right. If he can visually harass other people, why can't they verbally harass him?
Because, Joe, they don't have to look at him. But, he can't get away from bullying. BTW, were you part of Mitt's group that cut the gay kids hair?
He doesn't have to listen to them.
Sure, he can just turn his ears away. Idiot.
You're the idiot.
Do you always take everything that everybody tells you seriously?