High Life / A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : High School Paper Sued by Alumnus

A college student sued his high school alma mater, claiming he was libeled by a student newspaper that implied he was involved in a homosexual relationship.

Christopher Zerchot, 20, filed the lawsuit recently in Riverside County Superior Court, alleging “loss of his reputation, shame, mortification and hurt feelings” over the story.

High school journalism experts said the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages for emotional distress, could have a chilling effect on student publications nationwide.

The story appeared last year in the April Fool’s Day edition of “The Tiger Times,” the student-run newspaper at Elsinore High School. It labeled Zerchot and another male student as the “Couple of the Month,” and implied the two were lovers.

Zerchot, who now attends Riverside Community College, is not homosexual, said his attorney, J. Scott Bennett. He received harassing telephone calls and comments in the community after the article was published, Bennett said.

The lawsuit charges that the author of the story, Dylan Beck, knew the story was false, and that the newspaper’s former faculty adviser, Scott Olpin, and former high school principal, Dennis Price, failed to provide proper supervision of the newspaper.

Beck, Olpin and Price are named as defendants in the lawsuit suit along with the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, the high school and Gabe Eberhardt, a former editor of the paper.

Rick Pullen, a professor of communications at Cal State Fullerton, said it was “extremely rare” for someone to file a libel suit against a high school newspaper.

Jessica Lanford, a sophomore at Cornelia Connelly School in Anaheim, recently won first place in both the solo and ensemble divisions of the Southern California Bartok piano competition at Cal State Northridge.

In early February, Lanford will compete with all first-place winners from Northern and Southern California in San Diego for the state title.

“Groundhog Day (Feb. 2) has been observed only once in Los Angeles because when the groundhog came out of its hole, it was killed by a mudslide.”

--Johnny Carson