Parents Challenge Bolsa Grande Forfeits : They Say Rule That Cost Football Team 5 Games and League Title Is Illegal

Angry parents of athletes at Bolsa Grande High School Tuesday told Garden Grove Unified School District school board members that their policy that cost Bolsa Grande’s football team the league championship and five forfeitures last fall is illegal and should be voided.

In a meeting at Fitz Intermediate School in Santa Ana, the parents challenged a school district policy that caused Bolsa Grande to have to give up its Garden Grove League football championship last fall.

The controversy stems from a state-wide law that requires all students to maintain at least a grade-point average of 2.0 to participate in extracurricular activities. The state law, passed in 1986, allows individual school districts to have more stringent requirements, which Garden Grove Unified does have.

Garden Grove Unified specifies that student athletes must attain a certain level of credits for their appropriate year in high school in order to be eligible for a team.

Jack Fisher, a member of the Bolsa Grande booster club and whose son Damon was the quarterback, told the board Tuesday night that part of the district policy is illegal because it was not adopted at an open public meeting.

Fisher referred to the 1986 state law that specified that any additional requirements made by a school district must be made in an open meeting.

The hub of the issue is a football player on Bolsa Grande’s team, who in November was found not to attain the number of credits that the district specified for senior class standing. Because of this, the player was ruled ineligible and football team was forced to forfeit five games and give up the championship.

The school board Tuesday night took no vote on the parents’ challenge. But, the board instructed Superintendent Ed Dundon to refer the matter to the school board attorney and report back in two weeks.

Fisher also told a reporter that he is refering the matter to Assembly Speaker Willie Brown in Sacramento. Brown is the author of the state law that requires the 2.0 standing. Fisher said he thinks Brown will agree that Garden Grove Unified violated state law in adopting its more stringent policy in 1987.