Teen’s Attack Investigated

A cross-country runner from Huntington Beach High School says he was beaten by another student athlete who shattered his jaw while calling him a “faggot,” possibly because the runner’s coach is openly gay.

Coach Eric Anderson said Tuesday’s incident appears to be the latest harassment suffered by the school’s cross-country runners since he announced his sexual orientation to students and staff in 1993.

“We had people throw a bottle at us,” Anderson said. “We had kids drive by while we were running and call us fags. We had kids in class called fags.”

Huntington Beach detectives said Wednesday they are investigating the complaint by 18-year-old Jeremy Negrete, who alleged he was attacked by a 16-year-old football player who repeatedly called him a faggot while pummeling his head. No charges have been filed.

Huntington Beach High School Principal Jim Staunton said he interviewed the football player and characterized the incident as a fight between two teens.

Staunton described the football player as an “excellent” student who scored 1300 on his SAT test. The principal questioned whether the coach has an “agenda” and is inappropriately portraying the incident as homophobic.

“Our immediate intent was to get to the guys who were supposedly the suspects of an assault,” said Staunton, who said he reviewed written statements from Negrete and a friend who was with him during the incident. “This doesn’t look like an assault. I think what we have is a fight.”

The two youths had a previous locker room confrontation last fall, the principal said. According to the football player, Negrete used foul language on Tuesday and threw the first punch, splitting his lip, before the 16-year-old made anti-gay comments, Staunton said.

But Negrete told police that the 16-year-old and two other teens tried to pick a fight Tuesday afternoon while driving alongside Negrete and a friend as they returned from graduation practice, Huntington Beach Police Lt. Dan Johnson said.

The football player and his friends then showed up at the home of Negrete’s friend and attacked Negrete, the runner told police. The teen said the 16-year-old repeatedly called him a “faggot” and made crude sexual remarks while beating him.

“I said, ‘No, I’m not gay,’ ” Negrete said Wednesday, his voice muffled by swelling. “He was punching me on the side of the head. I couldn’t get up because I was trapped on the ground.”

Negrete is scheduled to undergo surgery Friday to repair and wire his shattered jaw. Family members said he delayed the surgery until then so he could attend his high school graduation today.

Negrete’s mother, Kathleen Negrete, said her son and his friends on the cross-country team have spoken repeatedly of the anti-gay harassment they have faced since Anderson went public.

“This is a problem,” she said. “It’s been a problem and it will continue to be a problem” unless the school takes strong action.

Coach Anderson, who knows of no other openly gay high school coach in California, said the incident underscores the often homophobic atmosphere of school athletics.

Staunton said there were prior incidents of anti-gay taunts against cross-country runners two years ago, but that the main culprit was a student who has since graduated and was told that he “shouldn’t do that.”

“I do not see, by any means, a widespread problem,” Staunton said. “To say that there is no problem would be naive, but to say it is any kind of a widespread problem--no.”

The principal said school officials have worked with the Orange County Human Relations Commission this year to address issues of ethnic tension and intolerance.

Anderson said that his runners experienced “dozens” of incidents of harassment after his public disclosure, but that “this year has been vastly improved.”

The coach said he decided to come out to school officials and students three years ago because he suffered from ulcers and migraines and was “miserable” from hiding his sexual orientation.

“When you are in the closet, you are not free. You are chained,” he said. “If you don’t fully come out, you constantly worry about who knows or doesn’t know. . . . You have to be fully conscious of everything you say, every comment you make. You become a chronic liar. I came out because I was physically and psychologically tortured.”

Anderson, 28, said his openness prompted “volumes of kids” isolated by their sexual orientation to come to him and tell him that they, too, are gay. The year Anderson came out, a student gay and lesbian support group called the Student Alliance also formed on the Huntington Beach High School campus.

But his announcement also prompted some parent complaints and “a rise in verbal assaults against my runners,” Anderson said. “I would bring the complaints to the administration.”

Anderson said he never expected his team would be targeted because of him. He said he had only heard Negrete’s version of Tuesday’s events, but that it seemed to fit a history of taunts experienced by his runners.

“I don’t like what happened, period,” he said. “But I don’t know at this point whether it was a hate crime. I’m only hearing one side of the story.”

Negrete said he and his teammates have nothing but respect for Anderson, who has coached at the school for 11 years and is known by the nickname “Gumby.” The youth said his team is upset with school officials for not doing more.

“I think it’s wrong, and I think it’s fine to have a gay coach on campus,” Negrete said. “I think they should expel people who [taunt us] so they will stop it.”

Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Chris Foster.