CHICAGO, May 14 (UPI) -- A student and her family sued the Chicago Board of Education because a substitute teacher showed the film "Brokeback Mountain" to her class a year ago.
The lawsuit said the student suffered psychological distress after watching the movie when she was in eighth grade, the Chicago Tribune reported. The movie, starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as two cowboys who fall in love, includes love scenes between the two men and between the men and their wives.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in Cook County Circuit Court, seeks $500,000 in damages. Besides the education board, the suit named Ashburn Community Elementary School Principal Jewel Diaz and the substitute teacher, known only in the complaint as "Ms. Buford."
"It is very important to me that my children not be exposed to this," said the girl's grandfather and guardian, Kenneth Richardson. "The teacher knew she was not supposed to do this."
The substitute teacher showed the video without permission from parents and guardians, according to the lawsuit. Richardson said he went to the school to talk to the teacher but she refused to speak to him without her union representative present.
