Teacher Snubs Award From All-Male Kiwanis

It would have been her first professional award. But veteran teacher Linda Smith turned it down because the sponsor, the Kiwanis Club, refuses to admit women members.

“I couldn’t be proud of an award from an organization that limits access and opportunity,” said Smith, 38, a math teacher at Los Alisos Intermediate School in Mission Viejo.

Smith heard last month that Principal Tom Tullar had chosen her for her “service to education” to represent the school at a May 5 breakfast held by the Mission Viejo Kiwanis Club to honor local students and teachers. But she decided immediately to refuse.

“I don’t think the school should be part of an organization that limits membership by race, religion or gender. It lends credence to the club’s policies,” she said.

Smith told Tullar, two school board members and the district superintendent of her decision. She will inform the club this week, she said.

The international service club has stuck with its 72-year-old men-only membership policy despite legal challenges by clubs in New York and New Jersey that were forbidden to use the Kiwanis name after admitting women. In December, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Kiwanis organization’s right to choose its own members in a case involving a New Jersey club.

A similar case, involving Rotary International and one of its chapters, Rotary of Duarte, has been accepted for review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kiwanis members nationwide are warming to the idea of admitting women, said David Blackmer, public relations director for the Indianapolis-based Kiwanis International. In 1985, 23% of clubs attending the Kiwanis annual convention voted to admit women, he said, and in 1986, 47% favored such a proposal. A two-thirds majority vote is needed to change the constitution defining members as “men of good character,” he said.

Smith praised the community service record of Kiwanians. But, she said, “one of my goals is to encourage girls in math and science careers. One way to encourage them is through contacts and support groups.” Men-only groups hinder women’s opportunities to further their careers, she said.

“We’re a men’s organization,” said Jim Carlin, former president of the Mission Viejo Kiwanis Club. “If that’s a crime, we should do away with Boys Club and the Girl Scouts.

“We do not exist solely for business contacts. You should join an organization for what the organization can achieve. Maybe we need more people like her to join the organization rather than to throw rocks at it. If she has a concern, she should express it to the membership and file a membership application.”

Membership in Kiwanis Club is by invitation, and any club that invites a woman to join would jeopardize its charter, a spokesman for Kiwanis International said.

Smith has been teaching for 15 years. She was treasurer of the Women’s Caucus of the National Education Assn. and founded and was the first president of the California Teacher’s Assn.’s Women’s Caucus in 1975-78. A member of the National Organization for Women, she marched for the Equal Rights Amendment with her daughter, then 3, and also joined a lawsuit, later dropped, to force the Saddleback Valley Unified School District to stop religious clubs from meeting on school campuses.

She lives in Lake Forest with her husband, Don, a special education teacher at Tustin High School, and their four children.