Orange County Focus is dedicated on Monday to analysis of community news, a look atwhat’s ahead and the voices of local people. : PERSPECTIVE : Looking for a Little Something to Cheer for in Laguna Hills

Are cheerleaders like quarterbacks? Or are the students who twirl, tumble and shout with their backs to the athletic action in a class of their own?

For 17-year-old senior Elissa Gillis, who failed to make the Laguna Hills High School cheerleading squad earlier this year, the answer could mean the difference between a season of triumph and one of deep disappointment.

Though the great legal minds of California’s highest court have wrestled with the issue of whether cheerleaders’ qualifications should be tied to classroom performance and attitude, they have yet to deliver a definitive ruling.

Meanwhile, Elissa and her mother, Debbie Gillis, are threatening to sue the Saddleback Valley Unified School District to force a change in its selection process. The elder Gillis contends that the school’s criterion for cheerleaders, which requires teachers to weigh a candidate’s classroom manner and character, is irrelevant in choosing the best squad.

“What does my daughter’s performance in math, history or science have to do with cheerleading? What other sport requires this?” asked Gillis, who points out proudly that Elissa was a cheerleader at a private school for three years. “I wish I had Judge Ito here.”

Football players’ abilities are not judged by their classroom performance, Gillis says, so evaluating a cheerleader in such a manner is unfair. Though her daughter met the minimum grade requirements to be on the squad, Gillis says, Elissa’s unremarkable performance in some classes prompted those teachers to vote against her.

Like many schools across the state, Laguna Hills High regards cheerleaders as more than athletes, administrators say. They are also seen as school ambassadors and, as such, are held to a higher standard that includes character.

“Any time you have people in the forefront representing the school, I think it’s important you have quality individuals in the public eye,” said Dore J. Gilbert, president of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District. “The emphasis is not only on jumping up and down but also on being a role model.”

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At Laguna Hills High, prospective cheerleaders are judged in four categories. The most important single score comes from an actual cheerleading routine, which accounts for 40% of their overall score.

The rest of the judging counts 10% for the opinions of a student committee, 20% for oral interviews by an adviser and other students, and 30% for teacher evaluations of the student’s classroom performance and attitude.

Bonnie K. Lawley, a Hacienda Heights lawyer, says the school’s policy of using teacher evaluations violates the state Constitution’s equal protection clause. Lawley, who has written two letters on behalf of the Gillises to the Saddleback school board, maintains that the policy on cheerleaders promotes preferential treatment and is discriminatory.

“It’s really not that different from saying you can’t use this restaurant because you’re black,” said Lawley, adding that the evaluations that kept Elissa off the squad are subjective.

The state Supreme Court heard Lawley’s arguments last year in a similar case involving a cheerleader who challenged the Irvine Unified School District’s policy of requiring higher grades for cheerleaders than for athletes.

Though the high court upheld an appellate decision that the Irvine policy does, indeed, allow a double standard, it refused to establish a precedent that would have been binding on trial courts statewide.

The court’s action, however, encouraged Hank Adler, a member of the Irvine Unified school board, to push for the end of teacher evaluations after his daughter Julie failed to make the pep squad at University High School.

Unaware of the school district policy until his daughter’s experience, Adler believes that cheerleaders and student athletes should be treated the same.

“The media write more articles about athletes than cheerleaders,” Adler said. “They are certainly more in the public eye than any cheerleader.”

For just that reason, he said, they should not be held to a different standard. “If cheerleaders are ambassadors,” he said, “so are athletes.”

Meanwhile, Elissa Gillis of Laguna Hills is not approaching the start of a new school year with her usual verve.

“Cheerleading was a year-round thing for me. I liked the dancing and performing in front of a crowd,” she said. “It was my life pretty much.”