Remark on ‘Effeminate’ Males Angers Las Virgenes Teachers

The superintendent of the Las Virgenes Unified School District, two years after publicly referring to Asians as “slant-eyed,” has now offended male teachers and gays by saying too many men seeking jobs as elementary school teachers are “effeminate,” school district officials said Friday.

Supt. Albert (Bud) Marley made the remark during a Nov. 11 discussion on gender bias in the classroom sponsored by the Thousand Oaks branch of the American Assn. of University Women, according to members of a women’s group and officials at the Calabasas-based school district.

Marley distributed a written clarification statement Friday to the district’s teachers, saying he had meant only to describe the need for more men in elementary teaching, adding that “if I could replay my comments and select other words to capture my thoughts on this sensitive issue, I would do so.”

Marley was widely criticized in May, 1990, for referring to Asians as “slant-eyed” during an appearance before a civic group. Marley made the remark when showing slides from a trip to China. He confirmed using the term after local Asian-American civil rights groups complained, and later apologized for the remark.

As did others who attended the session of the American Assn. of University Women at which Marley spoke earlier this month, association President Colleen Briner-Schmidt said Marley was discussing how hard it is to find strong traditional male role models to teach in his elementary school classrooms “when he made his statement that has now become infamous, that the men who apply to teach young grades tend to be effeminate.”

“He did make a comment first that he was going out on a limb,” recalled Briner-Schmidt, who said Marley went on to say he tries to hire “strong male role models.”

Marley refused to discuss the issue Friday, saying only that “I feel very strongly we need masculine role models in our elementary schools. That’s the point that I’m trying to make.

“Many of our teachers are mother surrogates,” he said. “We also need father surrogates.”

Marley also said male teachers already working in the district are not effeminate. But, he added, “We have far too few masculine role models.”

In his statement distributed to teachers, Marley said he was disturbed that 85% of applicants for teaching credentials are women and most of the male applicants apply for high school jobs.

“I attempted to point out--however distorted my language may have been--that in my view teaching at the elementary level should be viewed as a very positive vocational choice for men and women. Further, I know that men can and do possess the caring, nurturing and professional skills to make wonderful elementary teachers. Proof of this is our outstanding group of men who teach in the elementary schools in this district.”

Marley’s earlier remarks--and subsequent comments he made to the local newspaper, The Acorn--have sparked much controversy among teachers and school officials of the tiny school district, considered among the best in Los Angeles County. Many have called Marley and the school board to complain.

“It’s the care, the love, the talent and the experience we bring to the job, not one’s masculinity, femininity or sexual orientation that determines our value and what we bring to the children,” said Mark Cantor, a kindergarten teacher who called Marley.

Cantor said teachers plan to discuss the issue further with Marley. The school board’s incoming president, Dr. Iraj Broomand, said the matter will be discussed at the board meeting Tuesday, and that he already has had a long talk with the superintendent about what was said at the round-table meeting.

By describing male teachers as effeminate, Marley only meant to say that many men interested in teaching elementary school display an interest in subjects such as art and literature more commonly associated with women, Broomand said.

“He didn’t want to convey that the men who go into elementary school teaching are sexually different than the men who go into secondary teaching or any other endeavor,” Broomand said.

“To tell you the truth,” Broomand added, “a lot of us who are not politicians by nature can make statements that are misconstrued at times.

“He is a very cautious man, but sometimes he says things that don’t come across the way he intends them to,” Broomand said.

Jeff Horton, an openly gay school board member in the nearby Los Angeles school district, said that whatever his intention, Marley’s comment was inflammatory.

“Strong role models, whether male or female, should be judged by their character, how they teach, and their values, and not by their little mannerisms, which is what being effeminate describes,” Horton said. “If that’s the level he judges teachers at, he has no business being superintendent.”

Brad Laughlin, spokesman for the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, said: “If he’s saying some heterosexual, macho male role model is what’s best, I’d say that’s an ignorant, homophobic approach.”

Times staff writer Tracey Kaplan contributed to this story.