A divided panel of the Florida 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach has called on the state’s Supreme Court to determine whether a gay teen thrown out of Jupiter Christian School after confiding about his sexuality to a school chaplain can sue the chaplain, who outed him to administrators, for negligent infliction of emotional distress.
The three-judge appellate panel was sharply divided in its October 12 ruling.
Jeffrey Woodard was a senior at Juniper, an independent, Bible-based school not affiliated with any church. Todd Bellhorn, a teacher and school chaplain, approached him at the request of school administrators to “question and counsel” Woodard about his sexual orientation. Woodard was reluctant to talk about the matter with Bellhorn, but after being assured that the conversation was confidential, disclosed that he was gay. Bellhorn then counseled Woodard about Biblical views of homosexuality, after which he promptly betrayed the confidence by reporting the conversation to administrators.
The administrators in turn expelled Woodard in a very public manner. According to Woodard’s legal complaint, he was “berated by the press and the president of JCS, and shunned by his schoolmates as a result of the disclosure.”
http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_443/isachaplainsbetrayel.html
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