More Lawsuits Are Promised Over State Test : Education: Attorney says he will file against eight school districts if parental consent is not sought before exam is taken.

An attorney promises to file lawsuits against school districts up and down the state if consent is not sought from parents before their children are given the new state performance test, which he says violates the state education code by asking students questions about their personal beliefs.

Gary Kreep, executive director of the conservative United States Justice Foundation, this week filed suit against the Temecula Valley Unified School District and expects to file lawsuits against eight more school districts.

Kreep’s most recent lawsuit threat, and his first in Los Angeles County, was made Wednesday night to the Antelope Valley Union High School District, which has 12,600 students.

“The more publicity there is, the more parents that call us, the more plaintiffs we get, the more suits we file,” Kreep said Thursday. “This is going statewide. . . .This is serious.”

Kreep said his Escondido-based private, nonprofit foundation will file suit against every one of the more than 1,000 school districts in California if necessary.

“I want them to obey the law, notify parents and obtain written permission for students to take it,” he said. “If they follow the law, we’re not going to sue them.”

Kreep and a director from a chapter of the Eagle Forum of California, part of a nationwide conservative women’s group headed by Phyllis Schlafly, say parts of the 1993 California Learning Assessment System test ask students questions in violation of the law.

Education Code 60650 mandates that any test that questions students about their or their parents’ “beliefs or practices in sex, family life, morality and religion” can only be administered after parents are notified in writing and with their written permission.

Carolyn Steinke, head of a Coachella Valley Eagle Forum chapter, said passages of stories in the test present marriage, mothers and fathers in a negative light. “It maligns any belief in God,” she said.

One question from the 1993 test, according to Steinke, asks students to write about a time when someone in their family did something that caused the student see them in a different light.

William D. Dawson, acting superintendent of public instruction, said while students are asked to “make connections between their own experiences and the reading passages or writing topics,” the work is “not based on the feelings or values expressed in it, but rather on the quality of the evidence gathered and presented, logically and persuasively, as evidence of their ability to read with understanding and write with skill.”

A review of the test by the state Department of Education legal counsel, Dawson said, concluded that it does not violate the code.

Susie Lange, a department spokeswoman, said the department also believes the education code about parental consent does not apply to these tests.

Kreep said a suit will not be filed against the Antelope Valley district until the board decides whether it will seek parental consent. Trustees are scheduled to make a decision at their April 20 meeting at which they hope to get representation from the state Department of Education and their legal counsel, which has already said the district does not have authority to grant exemptions to students whose parents request they not be given the test.

Lange said any district that refuses to give the test would be in contempt of court.

“We have a very expensive test that a lot of public money has been dumped into,” she said. “We’re not going to let a fringe group bring it down.”