Hard Lessons

In 1989 two teenage girls reported they had been sexually molested over a period of five months in a suburban Philadelphia vocational high school. Five male students were convicted of indecent assault, and two others pleaded no contest and cooperated with the police. The girls' families sued the school district, arguing that since the state requires school attendance, schools -- like mental institutions and prisons -- have a duty to protect their charges.

The girls lost in a lower-court decision, and a federal appeals court last week ruled against them. In a 7-to-5 decision, the court held that while school officials may have disregarded complaints of the assaults, students are not confined in the manner of mental patients or prisoners; in short, the victims could have sought help outside the school, but failed to do so. The girls' lawyer said he would take the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.