School Newspaper Sex Report Trial Begins

Here's a high school newspaper issue you don't see everyday.

A campus paper at Emerald Ridge High School in Puyallup, Wash., is being taken to court for identifying students who were quoted for a 2008 report on oral sex on campus.

“Four students quoted in the package contend they never gave permission for their names and sexual histories to be printed. They suffered damages as a result in the forms of ridicule, harassment and invasion of privacy ... ,” according to The News Tribune of nearby Tacoma. “The district disagrees, saying the students did consent to their names and comments being printed and changed their stories only when their parents got upset with what was in the paper.”

The story adds: “attempts to settle out of court came up empty, and the parties now are in [Pierce County Superior Court] Judge Susan Serko's courtroom, trying to persuade a jury to their way of thinking.”