`Jenny Jones' May Take Legal Action Against Two Oregon Teenagers

SANDY, Ore. - A story invented by two Sandy teenagers to get on television has led the producers of "The Jenny Jones Show" to reprimand two staff members and consider legal action against the people who duped them.

"It's horrible and embarrassing and humiliating, and we don't like it at all," said Ed Glavin, co-executive producer of the nationally syndicated show. "We take great pains to minimize the chances of that happening."

But he concedes the show failed to follow one of its own policies for minors who are guests.

Glavin said minors who appear on the show must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, and the show requires written proof of guardianship.

In this case, he said, producers obtained nothing in writing. As a result, a producer and an associate producer were reprimanded.

The show did, however, follow other procedures, including checking Social Security numbers and demanding a photo identification to confirm ages and identities. Each guest must sign an agreement saying they are familiar with the nature of the show and are telling the truth, Glavin said.

"If we have aired any fake stories on `The Jenny Jones Show,' there haven't been many," he said. The show books 3,000 guests a year.

Janie Lamance and Stephanie Fletcher - both sophomores at Sandy High School - appeared as rivals on an Oct. 18 segment of the show called "Stop Harassing My Androgynous Teen."

Fletcher later told The Oregonian that the story was a lie, an idea brought to her by Lamance and her mother to get on the program.

Their principal confirmed the two girls never feuded.

Tracey Lamance, Janie's mother, later said her daughter has been harassed at school, but conceded that not everything said on the show was true. She appeared on the show with her daughter.

Fletcher appeared with a woman posing as her guardian, a friend of Tracey Lamance. Fletcher said she left Portland without telling her mother, who never called police.