Judge Loses Volley Over Women’s Tennis Class

The Vista Parks Department said Friday it doesn’t plan to reschedule a women’s tennis class, despite a Superior Court judge’s complaint that it clashed with his own playing time unnecessarily, since “unemployed housewives” could play tennis another time.

Leslie Monteforte, the teacher of the Monday and Wednesday lunchtime classes, and her students say Judge J. Morgan Lester was insensitive and arrogant when he asked the city to change the women’s reserved lesson times on two of four public courts near Vista City Hall, where the judge likes to play during lunch break from the Vista courthouse.

Cathy Brendel, assistant director for Parks and Community Services, wrote Lester on March 25 that she would monitor the tennis court availability. On Friday she said there appears to be no reason to change the women’s class because other nearby courts are usually available at that time.

“Currently, it will stay as it is,” Brendel said, adding that even if the courts do get crowded at lunch, no changes could be made until after the current class ends June 24.

Lester declined to comment Friday.

His March 16 letter, typed by a secretary on court stationery, complained that the all-female class taught by “a young blond lady” occurs during his lunchtime, when he wants the courts free “for members of the working public who do not have the luxury of playing at other times of the day.”

The women in the tennis class said they also don’t have that luxury, and that Lester seemed to imply that as a judge he was more important than they were.

They added that he stereotyped them when he wrote: “I have carefully analyzed the makeup of her students. It appears that they are either students or unemployed housewives.”

The women said only one participant in the five-member class is a housewife, and that woman, Ann Dell of Vista, said that being a mother of five active children is hardly a task that leaves her with many free hours.

She wrote Lester last week, saying: “I most definitely would not consider myself as non-working. Unlike yourself, I don’t have a title other than ‘mom,’ nor do I get a salary. But I do have the same right to recreation and exercise as yourself or anyone else. . . .

“I happen to believe that there is no job more important than raising my children to become happy, well-balanced, productive members of our society. And perhaps, if more people felt this way, there would be less of a workload for you and your colleagues to preside over.”

Dell said Lester called her home after receiving her letter and told her husband, Michael, that he hadn’t meant to offend the women. Dell and instructor Monteforte both said the call made them feel better.

Dell said she hoped the class would remain as scheduled because her children’s activities prevent her from playing tennis any other time. A classmate, Vickie Jaronik of Oceanside, noted that her home-based business frequently occupies 80 to 90 hours a week, and the class is offered at a rare break in her schedule.

“He put us all into a category” without bothering to really talk to the women first, Jaronik said.

Monteforte added: “He didn’t even bother to find out my name.” She said it had disturbed her that a supposedly impartial judge was “putting people into boxes” and “a second-class category.”

“In this day and age, for someone to have that type of attitude is disappointing,” Jaronik said.