Pupil Denied Elected Post Sues District

Seventeen-year-old Albert Nguyen this week joined the ranks of Orange County teen-agers who have sued their schools and have given notice that if pushed too far, they will push back.

As the student body’s president-elect of Los Alamitos High School, Nguyen was hoping to test the school’s administration as a representative of the 2,700 students who elected him. But he never got that chance.

Now, Nguyen is challenging the administration for what may be the first and last time--in Orange County Superior Court.

Nguyen sued the school district Wednesday after an administrator allegedly barred him from taking his seat because his grades were too low. In the suit, Nguyen says the school’s activities director, Jerry Halpin, violated the school constitution by keeping him from office. Halpin is also named in the lawsuit.

Nguyen’s attorney, Phillip Fife, said the rules ban candidates from taking the office of president only if their cumulative grade-point average falls below 3.0. The suit contends that Halpin has said candidates should be disqualified if their grades slip below that mark in any single semester.

When weighted for the more strenuous classes such as Japanese and college-level calculus that Nguyen took last semester, the senior received a 2.33 grade-point average, Fife said. But throughout his time in school, Nguyen has an overall average above a 3.0 on a scale of 4.0.

“There are a thousand different reasons for one bad semester,” Fife said. “Albert probably spent too much time on his campaign. And he had a leg injury that kept him from doing well in track class.”

Fife said the suit seeks immediate reinstatement of Nguyen as president and damages for invasion of privacy because Halpin allegedly violated the state’s Education Code by revealing Nguyen’s grade-point average to a local newspaper.

Neither Halpin nor Los Alamitos Unified School District officials returned calls for comment. Nguyen and his parents declined to comment.

Fife said, however, that the furor has taken its toll on Nguyen.

“One day you’re the student body president and the next day you’re out,” he said. “The U.S. Constitution should not end at the schoolhouse door. If he doesn’t protect his rights, they will be eroded and trampled on.”

Other school districts have also been the targets of suits by students:

* In a headline-making case that drew the attention of conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, Michael Carter, 18, alleged in April that school administrators at Servite High School in Santa Ana violated his free-speech rights and wrongly denied him readmittance when he refused to undergo psychological counseling. The Huntington Beach teen said he was ordered to counseling after accusing several female teachers of “femi-Nazi tactics.” The Superior Court ruled in favor of the school in July.

* Last year, Melissa Fontes of Corona del Mar won her suit against Irvine’s Woodbridge High School, where she was dismissed from the cheerleading squad for failing a chemistry class as a 16-year-old. Fontes, now 21, would not have been dismissed from a sports team but cheerleaders were held to a higher standard. The State Court of Appeal ruled in her favor last May.

* The year before, Jeremy Carlucci, a 19-year-old at Mission Viejo High School, sued his telecommunications instructor, Terry Sheppard, for punishing him for wearing a devil logo during the 1991-92 school year--then banned but later reinstated--by lowering his grades.