Judge: No financial damages from teacher

SANTA ANA, Calif., Sept. 18 (UPI) -- A California high school student offended by a teacher's allegedly anti-Christian remark cannot collect financial damages, a federal judge says.

U.S. District Judge James Selna, who found in the spring that James Corbett, a teacher at Capistrano Valley High School in Mission Viejo, violated the First Amendment, said he is protected as a public employee from paying damages or legal fees, The Orange County Register reported.

Corbett, during a lecture in May 2007, called Creationism "religious superstitious nonsense." Chad Farnan, 17, went to court.

"Corbett is shielded from liability - not because he did not violate the Constitution, but because of the balance which must be struck to allow public officials to perform their duties," Selna said in his 33-page ruling Wednesday.