PROVO -- A 4th District Court lawsuit seeking to oust Wendy Weaver from her teaching job could be soon dismissed -- but the legal battle is far from over.
A motion to dismiss two remaining counts against the gay Spanish Fork educator was prepared to clear the way for an appeal to the Utah Supreme Court, said the legal team for the Citizens of the Nebo School District for Moral and Legal Values.Matt Hilton, attorney for the citizens group, was disappointed at last week's ruling by Judge Ray Harding Jr., who only allowed two of nine claims in a 1997 suit against Weaver to remain. He said the ruling stymies the rights of parents to seek address in courts if school boards do not address their concerns.
Attorneys on both sides had asked for summary judgment on the counts, which included a claim that Weaver was practicing psychology without a license in her classroom. Left intact were two claims that Weaver violated religious and personal rights of some students.
"We feel there were substantial problems with the ruling," said a spokesman for Hilton's office. "The purpose (for the motion to dismiss) is so we can take it up on appeal."
The counts that will be dismissed both involve students who say they were harmed by Weaver's alleged derogatory statements about Utah's dominant religion and her access to the women's locker room.
Among the counts remaining, a former Spanish Fork student, who never was Weaver's student, feels her rights were violated by having to change clothes in the locker room near the former coach's office. This claim will be dismissed with prejudice.
Another student said he was offended when Weaver reportedly told classes that an LDS tradition of holding farewell meetings for missionaries had "no purpose." Both sides agreed to dismiss this claim without prejudice.
The 13 plaintiffs claimed in the initial 4th District suit that Weaver, as a gay woman, was morally unfit to be a teacher. They also said she stepped over legal lines drawn by the Utah Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Psychology Licensing Act, the Constitutional Freedoms in Schools Act and the Utah's teacher certification requirements.
Harding dismissed those claims last week, but spurred the most recent legal action.
In November, Weaver won a U.S. District Court suit against the Nebo School District for violating her rights of privacy and due process. She sued after officials told her not to discuss her same-sex attraction with students, parents or other staff and denied her a coaching job because of her sexual orientation.
As a result, the Nebo School District was ordered to pay Weaver more than $60,000 in legal fees.
Rich Van Wagoner, a Salt Lake attorney who is working in tandem with the ACLU in Weaver's defense, said Harding's ruling in regard to the claim by Jeana Barney that her personal and religious rights were violated by Weaver's presence in a locker room was problematic.
"That is opening up a Pandora's Box or Parade of Horribles or however you want to state it," Van Wagoner said. "Anytime the mere presence of someone offends someone's rights, you have to start providing different access to facilities for everybody. . . . It goes right back to separate but equal."
"If I were in Matt Hilton's shoes, I would not want to be known as the lawyer who resurrected separate but equal," Van Wagoner said.