Ad harassment suit settled

CALIFORNIA — A high school student in Modesto, who claimed an ad in the school paper was intended to harass her, settled her case out of court earlier this year. Michelle McGinthy filed suit against the Modesto City Schools after a fellow student ran an ad reading, “Anyways- B-Grateful that you have two working eyeballs and the rest of that good stuff” in the school paper.McGinthy’s left eye was removed in childhood surgery and she contends in her suit that the ad was “intended to ridicule, humiliate, abuse and disparage” her. She said the ad was the last straw after years of verbal and physical abuse by the fellow student. She claims staff members at the school knew that the ad was directed at her, but disregarded her feelings and let it run anyway.The other student, whose girlfriend placed the ad for him, denied that the ad had anything to do with McGinthy, claiming she was using the incident as an attention-getting device.John Murphy, McGinthy’s lawyer, would not disclose the details of the settlement and said only that it was in his client’s favor.