ACLU Speaks Up for Gay Students : Schools: Civil liberties union says support group at Fountain Valley High is being treated differently. District officials decline to comment.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sent two letters to the Huntington Beach Union High School District alleging that the rights of a gay support group at Fountain Valley High School have been violated.

“It appears that gay students are being singled out and treated differently without any written standards,” said Alan L. Friel, ACLU legal counsel.

District officials Thursday declined to comment on the charges contained in the letters sent Thursday and March 11. But Friel said he plans to meet with district officials today. The ACLU alleges that, unlike other school groups, the Student Alliance has not been allowed to have guest speakers and that they were not allowed to participate in the International Week activities on campus with other groups.

The ACLU also complained that the district’s policy prohibiting the Student Alliance--or any club--from excluding people has forced them to suffer students at their meetings who are openly opposed to homosexuality.

“The district’s policy violates the Alliance students’ rights of expressive association and right to be free from intimidation or violence,” Friel wrote in a letter.

The Student Alliance also complained to the ACLU that they were not allowed show a videotape of an HBO movie about lesbian high school students who attend their prom.

“Hopefully, they’re going to cease and desist their illegal activities and promulgate reasonable and non-discriminatory standards and policies,” Friel said.

Senior Jeff Edmonston, 18, a straight member of the alliance, said it is “being treated unfairly in relation to the other groups. We just want to be treated equally.”

Supt. David J. Hagensaid Thursday that the district’s high schools are re-examining the status of all clubs and organizations on campuses to determine whether they are related to the curriculum. Such clubs have privileges that groups such as the alliance aren’t afforded.

But the alliance alleges that even some groups not related to the curriculum, such as the Key Club, enjoy privileges they don’t have.

But in one letter, Friel said that the Student Alliance has “patiently allowed the district more than a reasonable amount of time in which to adjust its policies and to begin treating the Alliance in the same way as other groups are treated.”

The Student Alliance and ACLU have also complained about the removal of the group’s supervisor, English teacher Michael Poff, and his replacement by a school psychologist.

District and school officials declined to discuss why Poff was removed. Poff said he believes it was triggered by an incident in which a member of the Future Good Boys of America, which is opposed to the gay group on campus, tried to push his way into a classroom adjacent to a room where the Student Alliance was meeting.

The student alleged that Poff struck him. Police investigated, but no charges were filed.

“I feel a sense of loss; (the students) have grown so much over the last few months. They’re among the most decent groups I’ve worked with,” Poff said.