Teens Take Sides in Political Activist Club : Education: Irvine High students spar about everything from Eastern Europe to family planning in an unusual club for those interested in politics.

When it comes to politics, Irvine High School sophomores Felicia Bleecker and Rita Ravindra don’t agree on much.

In fact, it was after a series of impassioned arguments in a history class during the 1988 presidential election that the pair set aside their differences and came up with the idea for a high-school club designed for students interested in politics and government.

Six months after Activists for Political Awareness was born, Ravindra and Bleecker still spar about everything from family planning to Eastern Europe. But they do so as co-presidents of the club.

Now 30 members strong, the club attracts a solid lineup of speakers. Last month, it sponsored a special school assembly during which Rep. C. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) spoke and answered students’ questions.

While members admit having fierce political opinions, the club attempts to remain nonpartisan. To this end, each office is held by two people--one conservative and one liberal.

Bleecker is a die-hard conservative whose stationery boasts American flags and elephants; she hands out business cards that read: “Republican Felicia Bleecker.”

Ravindra, who has liberal leanings, bravely displayed a Michael Dukakis bumper sticker during the last presidential election, despite the snickers from some classmates in the heavily Republican community.

Although the club’s weekly discussions are often emotional, members insist there are rarely any hard feelings.

“We get dirty in our debates. . . . Sometimes, I want to rip her head off,” Bleecker said of Ravindra. “But we always remain friends.”

When the pair began planning for the club’s first meeting, their biggest fear was that only a few students would show up.

“There are a lot of people around here who don’t know what’s going on,” said June Fang, a junior and the club’s Democratic vice president. “They don’t know who the chief justice of the Supreme Court is, but they do know who Judge Wapner is.”

To the organizers’ surprise, 20 to 30 students attended the first meeting, and 400 heard Cox’s speech last month.

“I think a lot of people who are interested in politics are isolated on campus,” Bleecker said. “This is the first club of its kind. . . . Something more than football and cheerleading.”

Other activist clubs such as Amnesty International exist on the Irvine campus, but unlike those groups that are involved in a specific cause or issue, Activists for Political Awareness deals specifically with government and politics.

“There isn’t a lot of interest generally in partisan politics right now,” said Greg Gray, social science teacher and club sponsor. “That’s what makes this different.”

The paths that brought club members to the political beliefs they now hold are diverse.

Fang, for example, said her parents are open-minded and tolerate her liberal views, even though her father works in the defense industry and supports Republican candidates.

Bleecker’s situation is the opposite: Her parents are Democrats while she holds conservative beliefs.

“They’re the biggest bleeding-heart liberals. Oh, they were hippies. It’s so scary, I can’t even describe it. They’re for peace and freedom and liberty,” Bleecker said. “At the dinner table, we’re always kicking around some issue.”

Bleecker credits her grandmother for getting her interested in Republican politics, but acknowledged that her parents thought it was important “for me to be my own person.”

While club members strive for a nonpartisan atmosphere, they are the first to admit that the community they live in is overwhelmingly conservative. This makes it easier for the group to attract Republican guests than ones from the Democratic Party.

At the Cox assembly, the issues that most concerned students were the environment, the invasion of Panama, changes in Eastern Europe, abortion, homelessness and the federal deficit, Bleecker said.

Bleecker and Ravindra agree that teen-agers need to become better informed and involved.

“In the next decade, people are going to have to be aware of what’s going on,” Ravindra said. “If not, things are going to get bad.”

Added Bleecker: “Society looks down on high-school students as not caring, being on drugs and all that. But we’re the next generation. We’re the future.”