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Queens Teen Sues High School For "Sexting" Expulsion
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 9, 2011
Modified Jun 9, 2011
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 9, 2011
Modified Jun 9, 2011
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A Queens high schooler who says he was unfairly kicked out for "sexting" is suing his Catholic high school to let him back in. Joseph Farley's family filed suit against Christ the King Regional High School today—they say an assistant principal allegedly dragged him out of chemistry class and demanded his phone. Five days after he refused, he was booted. And while Farley's parents don't deny that their son sexted, they allege that it's not his fault:
"The unknown basis of the expulsion is most likely predicated on false statements made to the school by a lying daughter seeking to avoid her mother's wrath and the vindictive mother who takes her daughter's insubordination out on her daughter's boyfriends," Brenda Farley wrote in court papers. Farley says that the mom of the ex-girlfriend complained to school officials that he still had lewd images of her daughter on his phone, which led to the incident in the chemistry class.
Farley said that in November last year, the girl's mother showed up at her home demanding that her son stop dating her daughter, ostensibly prompted by the photos. "Once I learned of the pictures, I made certain that my son deleted them from his phone," she said. She also says assuredly that her son didn't send the photos to anyone else, and that other than violating school dress code by having a pierced ear, he's never been in trouble at school. As a result of all this, her son has suffered deeply she claims: "In the meantime, my son no longer attends the school of his choice, for that school chose to expel him for a reason still unknown to us …My son wants to become an engineer. His expulsion may jeopardize his plans."
All of this makes one thing explicitly clear: Anthony Weiner really, truly is an overgrown high schooler.
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high school
queens
sexting
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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