Deal Reached in N.Y.C. Over Girls' Medical Tests.

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Author: Hurst, Marianne D.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has settled a federal lawsuit against the New York City department of education on behalf of five female students who were suspended for refusing to supply school officials with the results of tests for pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court last July, accused school officials of violating state and federal laws regarding the students' right to privacy and of imposing illegal conditions on them because of their gender.

Rebekah Diller, the director of the organization's reproductive-rights project, said last week that the case was settled for an undisclosed sum. In addition, the city's education department agreed to pay reasonable lawyers' fees, revise school policy, and provide staff training on the issue of student privacy and medical tests.

The 8th graders were pulled from their classes at the 1,200-student Intermediate School 164 last April, after they skipped school to attend a "hooky party" where sexual activity allegedly occurred, according to the lawsuit.

The principal questioned the girls in meetings with their parents and effectively suspended them until they submitted the test results, it said. The students missed between two and three days of classes, and one student was removed from the school by her parents.

Officials with the city education department could not be reached for comment.

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By Marianne D. Hurst