‘Holy War’ Erupts Over Sex in O.C. School Board Race

The fuse of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board election race was lit more than a year ago, when teacher Mike Marino invited a panel of homosexuals to his psychology class at Corona del Mar High School, as he has done for 19 years.

In an open and frank discussion, the speakers talked about their life styles and problems coping with their traditional marriages and romances before coming to grips with their homosexuality.

Since then, a Christian fundamentalist, a devotee of ultraconservative Phyllis Schlafly and a “traditional values” group backing them have turned the Nov. 7 election for three board seats into a clash of philosophy over sex education, the school board’s conduct and how much say parents will have in what 16,000 children are taught in the district’s 26 schools.

Incumbents liken it to a “holy war” declared by religious and political extremists bent on and imposing their own morality on the district, in a campaign that includes calling for a ban on films such as “The Breakfast Club.”

But two of the challengers say religion has nothing to do with the election. They call the district’s sex education program irresponsible because they say it fosters premarital sex among students instead of abstention and traditional monogamous, heterosexual relationships.

All of this has plunged the Newport-Mesa school board into one of the most contentious and expensive elections voters have seen in years.

“The race has never been anything like this,” said Judith A. Franco, a former teacher who has been on the board since 1980. “They have been fairly low key, and I’ve never seen this many dollars raised for an election.”

Three of seven board members are seeking reelection Tuesday in the district’s at-large election. Incumbent Rod MacMillian, 62, of Costa Mesa, is running against Wendy Leece, 41, also of Costa Mesa. Jo Ellen Allen, 43, is challenging incumbent Sherry Loofbourrow, 48; both live in Corona del Mar. And, Karen M. Evarts, 48, of Newport Beach is competing with Franco, 52, from Newport Beach.

The board oversees a $73-million budget and sets policy for the district, which has an ethnic minority enrollment of about 24% and covers Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. Trustees earn $400 a month ($200 a meeting), plus health insurance.

As of Oct. 21, about $37,000 in campaign contributions have been raised by candidates, according to state financial disclosure statements. Evarts has received the most donations--$12,231. MacMillian, who has been on the board for 24 years, has solicited no money.

Challenger Allen is a college professor and state president of Eagle Forum, Schlafly’s national political group. Among other things, the conservative organization is anti-abortion and promotes what it calls “traditional family values,” including the idea that a woman’s primary place is the home, not the workplace.

Leece, who describes herself as a Christian fundamentalist, is a homemaker and former teacher who instructs two of her children at home and sends a third to Calvary Chapel High School in Santa Ana. Leece said she and many other parents are disillusioned with public schools.

Both Allen and Leece said Newport-Mesa’s sex education courses should mostly teach abstention from intercourse and refusal techniques, an approach of “just say no to sex.”

Leece said birth control can be mentioned in classes, but Allen said contraception should not be taught because it is illegal in California for minors to have sex.

Leece said she is running for office to restore public trust in the district, but she is concerned about her children: “Will little Johnny, learning what he learns in public school, try something on my little daughter?”

To teach anything other than abstention, Leece and Allen said, invites teen-age pregnancy, abortion and sexually transmitted diseases, including acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which Allen described as the next epidemic for the nation’s youth.

“It is time for someone to stand up and say kids have the right to say no and don’t have to give away their bodies for a hamburger and a movie,” Allen said.

“Sex should be reserved for adults. Just say no. If they don’t, they are playing Russian roulette.”

While incumbents defended the current program, Leece and Allen also questioned the use of certain sex education films on campuses, because they do not stress abstention or the risks of sexual activities.

Both said the board has ignored the public on these issues, and that it is time for new blood.

The third challenger, Evarts, said the district waited too long to draft guidelines for sex education classes and that parents have been left out of the decision-making process on curricula that affect their children.

She blames Superintendent John W. Nicoll for part of the problem and does not want his contract renewed in June, 1990.

But Evarts, a Newport Beach library board member, said she supports the district’s sex education curricula.

“I would rather err on the side of too much knowledge,” she said. “Misinformation or a lack of information can truly be a death sentence.”

Similarly, incumbents Loofbourrow, MacMillian and Franco said they are satisfied with the district’s sex education curricula and have provided ample opportunity for parents to help determine what is taught.

They said the real issues in the election--teacher training, the opening of new schools and providing education for a growing number of foreign immigrants--are being eclipsed by the sex education controversy.

“We’ve spent so much time on it, it has taken away time from the other issues,” Franco said. “If Mike’s (Marino) class wasn’t taught, I’d be the only one being challenged.”

Loofbourrow and MacMillian maintained that Leece and Allen have a hidden agenda supported by Christian and conservative extremists who are using the sex education issue as an entry to political power.

“I think my opposition is involved in a holy war,” said MacMillian, who owns a restaurant on Santa Catalina Island. “I don’t feel threatened, but I think education is. People should be aware of this. It’s scary.”

“Religion is not part of this election,” Leece replied. “If I’m a fundamentalist, I believe in American traditions, and the fundamentals of reading, writing and arithmetic. They should be stressed in our schools as well as the values of family, which are heterosexual, monogamous marriages and abstinence before marriage.”

Incumbents, however, said that sex education issues have already been addressed over the last year and that the program needs little improvement. The classes are optional in the district, and parents have been able to review materials and attend public forums to make suggestions about curricula.

After the controversy erupted last year over Marino’s use of homosexual speakers, trustees also began requiring parental permission for students to take family life and sex education courses.

The district’s sex education, biology, psychology, family life and health courses address human sexuality to various degrees. Contraception, safe-sex methods, venereal disease, abortion, AIDS, human reproduction, abstinence and homosexuality are among the topics presented.

“Abstinence is always emphasized, but parents want their children to have more information so they can make informed and healthy decisions,” Loofbourrow said. “No way am I or the board condoning premarital intercourse.”

With some fine-tuning and parental involvement, the incumbents said, they have eliminated certain topics, such as sexual disorders, that some parents thought were too strong for a basic high school psychology class.

“We are responsive,” MacMillian said.

But Allen and Leece said that is not enough.

Some district policies, films and instructional methods, they said, violate state law related to sex education, including recently enacted legislation by state Sen. Newton R. Russell (R-Glendale). Among other things, the measure requires sex education in the public schools to emphasize that abstinence is the only protection that is 100% effective against unwanted pregnancy, venereal disease and AIDS.

Although Russell’s office admitted that his measure is vague and does not specify the amount of time to be spent on sexual subjects, Allen and Leece said the legislation means that practically all instruction must be about abstinence.

District officials, however, maintained that they are complying with the law.

Leece’s and Allen’s views are shared by the Committee to Restore Ethical And Traditional Education, which is trying to influence the election. At least a third of Leece’s campaign donations and almost fourth of Allen’s contributions come from CREATE members.

The Newport Beach-based group, which sprung up partly in response to Marino’s class, has accused the incumbents of fostering the teaching of dangerous and permissive attitudes about sex and homosexuals.

CREATE opposes the showing of certain films in school--including “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” because of its adult themes and “The Breakfast Club” because, members said, it suggests the loss of virginity by a teen-age student.

While there is some opposition to sex education courses, incumbents said, the vast majority of parents have been satisfied with what is being taught. When Marino resumed using homosexual speakers after a temporary ban on the practice last summer, the parents of just two children refused to allow their children to take his class, district officials said.

Of 709 parental permission slips returned at Corona del Mar High School this year for sex education courses, no parent totally refused to allow their children into the courses. About 20 permission slips requested that children not be present when certain topics are discussed.

“I’ve had trouble taking them seriously,” Loofbourrow said about Leece, Allen and CREATE, “because the people on the board are conservative, family-oriented people involved with their churches.”

Marci Hanover contributed to this story.

CONTENDERS FOR NEWPORT MESA SCHOOL BOARD The Newport-Mesa Unified School District board election involving three seats has become a clash of philosophy over sex education, the school board’s conduct and how much say parents will have in what 16,000 children are taught in the district’s 26 schools.