Local : OC School Ends Gay Program
After 19 years of having homosexual speakers discuss their life styles with students in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, the district’s superintendent has decided to ban the program because he said it is no longer necessary for the school’s curriculum.
District Supt. John W. Nicoll reversed his earlier decision on the gay speakers last Thursday, after a group of about 70 parents mounted opposition to the discussions held in Mike Marino’s psychology class with Corona del Mar High School students.
“While I firmly believe that Mr. Marino should continue this instruction in his classes, I did not think that the invitation of speakers in the subject of homosexuality--people who are not educators or specialists, but people representing a point of view--should continue, “ Nicoll said today.
Marino taught the class at Newport Harbor High School for eight years before going to Corona del Mar, where he has been teaching the class for 11 years.
“The speakers have altered the students’ thinking and misguided notions of the situation (of homosexuality), and that’s what education is all about,” Marino said today.
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