Instead, in front of 50 other students, teacher Heather Hargett, called her ugly and kicked her and told her to leave the room, Jade said in a lawsuit.

What set the teacher off, Jade said in her lawsuit, was that she questioned paying $15 for the choir T-shirt that other singers were wearing.

She has never returned to that school and now wants more than $75,000 for the pain and humiliation she suffered, her attorney John Gomez said. Both Hargett and the Grossmont Union High School District, which oversees the Spring Valley school, were named in the lawsuit. It was filed July 9 in San Diego Superior Court.

Hargett declined to comment yesterday. The Grossmont district said in a statement that it has taken appropriate action to address the allegations but declined to further comment.

Jade's attorney said he offered to settle with the district for $75,000, but the district board rejected his offer in May. He is now asking for a jury trial.

According to the lawsuit, Hargett had picked several groups of students to deliver the singing grams and “intentionally excluded” Jade. The 14-year-old asked why, and Hargett answered that she “looked bad” and had no choir T-shirt.

Jade asked whether the T-shirt really cost $15, and Hargett told her to leave the class, the lawsuit said. When Jade asked if she was serious, Hargett said that if she couldn't afford a T-shirt, she had to leave. The teacher called Jade a “brat” and “ugly” and kicked her, the lawsuit said. The kick landed on her buttocks, Gomez said.

Leonel Sanchez: (619) 542-4568; leonel.sanchez@uniontrib.com