KANSAS: High School says gay harassed straight

A gay student at Metro-Midtown Alternative High School in Kansas may face expulsion after school official claim the 17-year-old junior harassed a fellow student in a school bathroom.

Iniguez says he is innocent. The other male student in the bathroom is a friend, he says, and the two were just talking. But more important, he says, he is being discriminated against because he is gay.

According to Iniguez, the incident began when a female friend told him she had heard a rumor that a mutual male friend of theirs was gay.

"I told her that rumor was false," Iniguez said. "I said I would know, because I was his best friend."

But, "it's like you can't be straight and have a gay friend," he added.

When the male student saw Iniguez in the bathroom later that day, he asked Iniguez what was going on.

"So I told him, 'Some people are saying you're gay, but don't worry. I told them it wasn't true,' " Iniguez said. "But he still got kind of upset."

The student, who is 18, allegedly returned to class and threatened students and a teacher, Iniguez said. He was suspended and later expelled.

School officials then suspended Iniguez, saying he was partly to blame because he harassed the teenager in the bathroom.

The teenager, a longtime friend of Iniguez's, has agreed to testify on Iniguez's behalf at today's hearing, McKean said.

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