Parents On Crusade to Get Twins in Class

Joel King likens his cause to the civil rights crusades of the 1960s. He invokes the name of Martin Luther King Jr. His wife, Stacy, says she’ll go on a hunger strike, or risk arrest.

The businessman and his wife compare their opponents in the Rancho Palos Verdes city government to the Nazis and have threatened a recall effort against every member of the City Council.

As they and their supporters picketed outside City Hall on Thursday, the Kings vowed never to relent in their all-out campaign for justice.

Their goal: enrolling their twin boys in a city recreation class called “Mommy & Me.”

The dispute began a little more than a week ago when Stacy King was told that she could not bring both of her identical 15-month-old boys, Jaron and Jotham, to the weekly “Mommy & Me” class at the Ladera Linda Community Center.

The 1 1/2-hour sessions are designed to help mothers interact with and spend “quality time” with their children. But city officials say the program is meant for mothers with a single child and have refused to change the rules to let King attend with both her boys.

Joel and Stacy King called the city policy foolish and at odds with policies of other cities, which permit twins in such classes. “They are discriminating against me because I have twins,” Stacy King said.

The couple failed to persuade the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council to change the policy at Tuesday night’s regular meeting, so they expanded their protest Thursday morning by gathering a dozen mothers of twins and staging a full-fledged media event.

The Kings invited every Los Angeles television news station and most area newspapers to the community center, promising the telegenic spectacle of moms on the march with their matched sets of offspring. Three television crews and several news reporters and photographers took the bait and showed up at the center on Forrestal Drive.

Anticipating the protest, the city canceled the “Mommy & Me” class that was scheduled for 9 a.m., but the Kings and the other mothers were not assuaged. As the television cameras rolled and reporters scribbled notes, the mothers escorted their brightly dressed twins in a circle around the center, chanting “It’s just not fair! It’s just not fair!”

The women, who belong to the local chapter of a group called “Mothers of Twins,” carried placards that read: “R.P.V. Hates Twins!” and “Twins Are Kids Too!” and “Twins Are Terrific.”

City Hall Confrontation

After half an hour of picketing, Joel King urged mothers, twins and camera crews to follow him up the street for a confrontation at City Hall. There, he promised, his wife would plant herself inside the city’s recreation hall and refuse to move until she was arrested.

“You’re going to get arrested. You’re going to jail,” King called to his wife.

But the city would not cooperate.

“We’re not going to arrest anyone,” city spokeswoman Cari Cooper said in front of City Hall. “What they’re doing is perfectly legal.”

Not to be discouraged, Stacy King retorted: “Then I’m going on a hunger strike until they change the rules.” She did not say when the fast would begin.

City officials called the Kings’ actions extreme.

Mayor Robert E. Ryan said the protest was the “most disgusting” that he has seen in his 15 years on the City Council. “It’s funny, but it’s got some viciousness below the surface,” said Ryan, who had Joel King ejected from Tuesday’s council meeting after King screamed at city officials.

Joel King said in an interview that he has been forced to increase his protests because he has been ignored. He said the twins should be allowed in the class so they can develop and mature together.

“How do you break up identical twin boys?” he asked. “How do you do it? I feel that the rule is wrong.”

Stacy King said it might be harmful for the boys if she has to separate them to attend the class.

Joel King said the city should concentrate on more serious problems, such as drug and alcohol abuse, rather than on keeping his children out of the class.

Another Adult to Supervise

Park and recreation officials said King can attend the class if she brings another adult to help supervise her boys. They added that park programs serve 20,000 residents a year and that no other complaint has ever gone to the City Council.

“I’m not saying some of the drastic measures the Kings are taking are appropriate, but the city needs to bend its rules a little bit,” said Debbie Hunt, one of the mothers of twins who came out to support the Kings.

Stacy King said she is prepared for a long fight.

“I don’t have to work,” she said. “I have a nanny. They are going to have to change that rule. I have nothing else to do with my time except do this. If they want to fight with me, I can take my time and do it.”