Teens Find a Haven in L.A. Program : Education: For gay students who have been harassed or isolated in regular schools, EAGLES Center offers an alternative to dropping out.

A pleased, shy grin spreads over Christine’s face as she talks about her first few days at the EAGLES Center.

“I was flattered,” she says. “They were very warm. They thought I was cute. . . . This is the best situation I’ve ever been in.”

Certainly it was a change for the 16-year-old, who says she left Theodore Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights after hearing rumors that someone had compiled a list of gay students “who were going to get bashed. . . . I didn’t like that school no more. I got too much hassles there.”

She is one of 35 students enrolled in EAGLES (Emphasizing Adolescent Gay, Lesbian Education Services), an alternative public high school program for gay youths started by the Los Angeles school district in 1992. Only the second of its kind in the nation--the first was the Harvey Milk School in New York City--EAGLES takes teen-agers who have had school problems because of their homosexuality. Harassed, bashed or isolated in their regular schools, some drop out. Others think about it.

“They need a chance, a real chance,” says the program’s founder, Jerry Battey, 50, a talkative, graying teacher who plays counselor, administrator and self-esteem booster. “But because of who they are, most people don’t have the time or the inclination to give them that chance.”

On a recent day, roughly half of the 35 showed up--about the usual number--for 4 1/2 hours of study in a program that will lead to a high school diploma. They gather in several rooms in a building owned by a community group. Like other branches of Central High School, the district’s alternative high school, EAGLES operates away from school campuses.

The teaching assistant makes vain attempts to quiet the constant chatter. A few students, including Christine, work diligently at their assignments. “This ain’t nothing compared to my old school,” she shrugs. “They used to have little radios. At least here they don’t have music on.”

At another table sits Daisy, 17, wearing a leopard-print jumpsuit, bright lipstick, fingernail polish and a crucifix necklace. She used to be Andy, she explains, but after a sex-change operation in Mexico paid for with hustling money, she took a new name. At 13, she says, she was thrown out of her South-Central Los Angeles home by her parents.

She arrived at EAGLES a few weeks ago after someone on the street gave her a flyer about the school. For Battey, simply that she is there is a victory.

Jerry, 17, says he decided that it was time to “check out” of Marshall High School the day two gang members robbed him of $5, and then as a parting shot, shouted an anti-gay slur and a warning: “You better watch yourself.” It was the fourth time in less than a year that he had dropped out because of threats of physical violence and constant name-calling.

At EAGLES, he says, “I am finally comfortable coming to school. I can talk the way I want. Act the way I want. I don’t have to pretend to be someone else.”

Battey and his principal, Beth Newman, say they have received enough inquiries about EAGLES from throughout the district to merit the program’s expansion. They are proposing that the center spread to eight locations with 16 teachers.

“We are just here to educate students according to state guidelines,” Newman says. “If this is the only way we can educate these youngsters, we will do it.”