Students Suffer, Teacher Says : Order Barring Gay Speakers Criticized

A Corona del Mar High School teacher who has been told to stop inviting gays to speak to his psychology class said Wednesday that the order deprives students of “accurate information to combat stereotypes and misconceptions and promote tolerance.”

“Our students are going to go out into a world that is increasingly homophobic,” said Mike Marino, who has taught the class at the high school for 11 years. “They need to properly evaluate the facts in order to eliminate the misconceptions of the situation.”

John W. Nicoll, superintendent of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, last week ordered that Marino stop inviting gay speakers to the class because “they did not serve to achieve the purpose of the course and weren’t necessary to the curriculum,” he said Wednesday.

70 Parents Objected

The decision came after more than 70 parents voiced opposition to that aspect of the class. Nicoll, who did not consult the district’s school board, said the parents’ opposition was not the cause of his decision.

“I didn’t 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,” he said.

Marino may continue to lecture on the subject of homosexuality, Nicoll said.

Marino has been inviting gay speakers to his psychology classes since he began teaching 19 years ago at Newport Harbor High School.

The superintendent’s order means that “we’ve lost a valuable resource, especially in these days,” Marino said Wednesday.

Ross Martin, a senior who took the class last year, said: “This is really going to hurt the class. Now students aren’t going to be able to learn first hand about their (gays’) lives and some of the problems they have to deal with.”

Sharlynn Kerr, a sophomore who just completed Marino’s class, said she thought the decision is wrong.

‘A Right to Learn About It’

“I think that homosexuality is a part of our society, and we have a right to learn about it from homosexuals,” she said. “If they don’t mind us learning about sex education, drugs and alcoholism, then we should also learn about homosexuality.”

Ray Woolsey of Newport Beach, one of the parents opposed to gay speakers in the class, said discussion of homosexuality belongs in the home, not the classroom. “If they want to teach psychology, that’s fine,” he said. “But they should keep that stuff out of it.”

Sandee Kerr, Sharlynn’s mother, disagreed. “Maybe I’m too open-minded,” she said, “but I didn’t think those people were going to sell their kind of living, just to talk about it. You don’t have to buy it. It’s just another life style, that’s all. And we just have to learn to be more tolerant in different ways.”