NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Sept. 10 (UPI) -- A U.S. high school
whose male athletes threatened to rape and kill a girl starring in a
school play will get tolerance training, a legal settlement stated.
Corona del Mar High School, which drew national attention
this year when its principal canceled "Rent: School Edition" because
of concerns about its content, will provide the training to
students, teachers, administrators and school district officials,
the settlement said.
The production was later reinstated after Principal Fal
Asrani said the only reason she had banned the performance was that
she had not been given a copy of the script.
During the controversy, the school was sued by the American
Civil Liberties Union for allegedly harboring a culture of
homophobia and sexism.
The lawsuit charged that three football players posted a
video on the Facebook social networking Web site in which they
threatened to rape and murder student Hail Ketchum, 17, now a Loyola
Marymount University freshman.
Ketchum starred in "Rent," playing Mimi, an exotic dancer
with the human immunodeficiency virus.
Because of the settlement, "no one else will have to go
through what I went through," the Los Angeles Times quoted Ketchum
as saying.
Under the settlement, the training will be led by the
Anti-Defamation League and will include such topics as what
constitutes discrimination and harassment and how students can be
harmed by it.
School district officials admitted no wrongdoing in the
settlement and declined to comment on the lawsuit's allegations.