SAN DIEGO -- Three years after a jury awarded a pair of homosexual students $300,000 for harassment by their Poway High School classmates, school district attorneys were in court Friday asking a three-judge panel to overturn the verdict.

The students who brought the suit were also on hand to watch as their attorneys argued that the jury's findings were proper.

One of the issues before the 4th District Court of Appeal is whether the jury was given proper instructions before it decided in favor of Joseph "Joey" Ramelli and Megan Donovan. The panel awarded $175,000 to Ramelli and $125,000 to Donovan.

Jurors found that the two were subjected to "severe and pervasive" harassment, that school officials knew or should have known about it, and that officials failed to take corrective action.

It also determined two administrators had acted with "deliberate indifference" in Ramelli's case.

Poway attorneys argue the verdict should be overturned because of what they say were faulty jury instructions. Those instructions, they said, gave the jury the impression the district was bound by state law to provide a completely harassment-free environment when in fact such a standard is unreachable.

Attorney George Murphy, who represents the district, said administrators did all they could to help the kids, but their complaints were sometimes vague and the perpetrators of the harassment were unknown.

The students, who attended Poway High from 2000-03, repeatedly reported harassment before finally opting for home schooling, according to testimony during the five-week, 2005 trial.

Their attorney said the award should stand.

"The message is that administrators need to pay attention to what is going on in the hallway," said Brian Chase, who represented the former students on appeal. "They need to make sure kids aren't getting relentlessly harassed and can't throw their arms in air and say kids will be kids."

After the hearing, Ramelli said the harassment included getting beat up and having his car vandalized.

"Those are four years of my life that I don't want to remember," he said. "This was never about the money. This (legal battle) was designed to protect students and student rights."

Both he and Donovan are now 22, and both said they plan to head to junior college in the fall.

Among the questions posed by the judges during the hearing was whether the monetary awards were an appropriate resolution for the case.

"What is it about money damages alone that fulfills the intent of the Legislature, which is to create an environment free from harassment?" Justice Patricia Benke asked.

Poway officials did not raise the issue of the propriety of monetary damages in such a context before or during the trial.

The justices have 60 days to issue their ruling.

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-5442 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.