Beyond the Blackboard

Court Fees Going Against Farnan

This is on top of $1,400 Farnan was ordered to pay earlier. From the OC Register:

SANTA ANA – A federal clerk court on Tuesday awarded $8,483 in court-related fees to attorneys for high school teacher James Corbett, more than tripling the amount of money that the student who sued over Corbett's anti-Christian rhetoric has been ordered to pay.

Milli Borgarding, the deputy in charge of the Santa Ana division of the U.S. District Court clerk's office, determined that although Corbett violated the First Amendment rights of former student Chad Farnan, Corbett's legal team is entitled to recover a total of $12,631 in court costs.

The decision went against Farnan because the same attorneys represented the Capistrano Unified School District, which was found not liable for Corbett's actions.

The fees are to be paid by Murrietta-based Advocates for Faith & Freedom, the Christian legal group that represented Farnan on a pro-bono basis.

"It remains to be seen whether they are entitled to these costs," said Farnan's attorney, Jennifer Monk. "On many cases, it's very clear who won and what the costs are. In this case, nothing is that simple. It will go to the judge to make a final decision."

Here's the entire story.

Another Saga: Farnan V. Corbett

From Martindale at the Register:

Nationally renowned constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Irvine's law school, will represent high school teacher James Corbett in appealing a federal court ruling that found Corbett violated a student's First Amendment rights.

Corbett, who referred to Creationism as "religious, superstitious nonsense" during a fall 2007 classroom lecture, filed his appeal today with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Chemerinsky was named in the filings as a member of Corbett's new, four-person defense team. All of the attorneys will work on a pro bono basis.

"Dr. Corbett has rendered an extraordinary service to the Capistrano Unified School District and its students for many, many years," said one of the attorneys, Craig Johnson, who works in Riverside, "and I think that it is a disservice to his record and his legacy to allow the current ruling on summary judgment to stand."

Both sides are appealling the earlier ruling -- which found Corbett crossed the line in one of 20-plus instances cited, but the teacher wasn't liable for any costs.

Here's the full story.

Judge Holds Off on Farnan-Corbett Financial Ruling

From Martindale at OC Register:

SANTA ANA – A federal judge today postponed deciding whether to shield high school history teacher James Corbett from financial liability after he was found to have disparaged religion in class.

U.S. District Judge James Selna had issued a tentative ruling last week indicating he would effectively bar 17-year-old Chad Farnan of Mission Viejo from recovering any monetary damages or legal fees in the nearly 2-year-old case, but declined to make that ruling final today after a 45-minute hearing in his Santa Ana courtroom.

“I will take one more look at this,” Selna said after Farnan’s attorneys convinced him that such a ruling might be prejudicial.

Corbett, 62, was found to have violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause in May when he referred to Creationism as "religious, superstitious nonsense" during a fall 2007 lecture at Mission Viejo’s Capistrano Valley High School.

Here's the full story.

Judge: Corbett Overstepped Bounds with One Statement

Capistrano Valley High School teacher James Corbett overstepped legal boundaries with one statement in his AP class: When he contended  that creationism was "supersititious nonsense."

That, U.S. District Judge James Selna said, violated student Chad Farnan's constitutional rights.

Selna supported several other of Corbett's statements that Farnan listed in his 2007 lawsuit that said Corbett was anti-Christian.

The decision, however, comes with a cash award of just $1. Farnan remains a student at Capo Valley High, and Corbett remains a teacher.

That's OK, said Jennifer Monk, associate general counsel with the Murrieta-based Advocates for Faith and Freedom. "This was not about bleeding this school district ... It's about Chad standing up for his Constitutional rights, and today the Court said his Constitutional rights were violated," Monk said.

The group could seek to have its attorney's costs reimbursed.

Capistrano Unified School District officials received the decision Friday and did not have a comment.

Click here to see the ruling.

Click here to see the Register's coverage.

How Was the Prayer Service?

I didn't make it out to the prayer service, but the Register sent a reporter.

That story is here.

Anyone go? How was it? Any trustees go?

Well, Maybe This Will Work ...

I got a few copies of an e-mail going around advertising a prayer rally for Capistrano Unified School District.

I don't know anything more than what's on the flyer, but the event is apparently at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, February 16 at Chapparal Elementary School. The flyer says the event is help unify Capistrano Unified.

It lists several clergy leaders who will particpate. I note they're all Christian.

Here's a copy of the flyer.

Here's the body of the email I received:

"CUSD Prayer Rally - Please pass it You’re invited to a Prayer Rally for CUSD on Monday, February 16

See the attached flyer for all of the details. Please take a minute to forward this to anyone and everyone you know who cares about the Capistrano Unified School District (teachers, staff, parents, students, administrators, grandparents, future CUSD families, etc…) Everyone from ALL OVER CUSD is welcome! We need to get this flyer into the email boxes of people from all 56 CUSD schools ASAP!

Also, if you have or know of a business, church, preschool, etc… in the CUSD area that would be willing to have these flyers available to customers, please feel free to make some copies and distribute that way. We want to get the word out – and the only way to do that is by word of mouth with this flyer.

There’s power in prayer so we hope you’ll join the CUSD Prayer Rally!

Ann Marie Jennison"

Ms. Jennison is apparently a Ladera Ranch parent. OC Family had a little piece six years ago that identified her as president of the "Kids Who Care Club," which taught kids the value of community volunteerism. 

Here's a link to that article.  

I'll do my best to track her down Monday.