Ruling Riles Club Backers

I am alarmed at the 7-0 decision by the Orange Unified School District, denying the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance club at El Modena High School (Dec. 8).

This is clearly a decision made by selfish board members to protect their status and image in the community.

With so much reported violence occurring daily on school campuses, a club of this nature would provide a venue for open dialogue, education and protection.

How can seven individuals trusted with the safety and well-being of all students in Orange Unified so totally fail this outcast population?

How many educational programs could have been funded with the money the district will spend on legal defense?

ART SCOTT

Rancho Santa Margarita

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I don’t think anyone was surprised by views expressed by the arch-conservative Orange Unified school board.

It may have won the battle, but we will win the war.

Even if the Gay-Straight Alliance is barred from the campus of El Modena High School, the students who started the club and the hundreds of homosexual and bisexual students on the campuses of Orange Unified have not lost.

They have won the admiration and respect of people not only in Orange County but all over the world. They are not alone. They now know they have friends and family to offer support.

The school board has made it quite clear it does not support the teachers in Orange over the years. Now with this decision it has also made it clear it does not support the students. This leads one to ask the question, “Why are they on the school board?”

RICHARD HERBER

Board member, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of Orange County

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How sad that the Orange Unified school board is not interested in meeting the needs of all its students, gay and straight alike.

Kudos to Anthony Colin and others like him who have the strength and courage to continue the legal challenge. I’m certain there are many homosexual, bisexual and transgender high school students silently cheering him.

Gay-Straight Alliance clubs are social and service-oriented groups. To those narrow-minded individuals who assert that the group would deal with “curricular issues of sexuality” and “gay indoctrination,” I say: Get real.

Please don’t project your bigoted fears onto these teens who simply want to meet for support and friendship. The El Modena Gay-Straight Alliance supporters will be in our thoughts and prayers.

SHELLEY COLLETT

San Jacinto

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I find it pathetic and appalling that the Orange Unified school board is going to drag its gay students and our tax money through the mud in what I feel is a cynical face-saving ploy.

My belief is the board knows it will lose this fight. Its members are just attempting to hold on to their seats in the next election.

Let’s face facts here. We know what kind of people are driven to vote in a school board election and it isn’t a very gay-friendly crowd.

The board is going to drag this out until a judge makes it allow the club. Board members can then go to the voters and say they didn’t want this to happen but their hands were tied.

That way they can blame the kids and the courts for a “problem” that never should have presented itself in the first place and for wasting our tax money in the process.

SCOTT HUTCHESON

Aliso Viejo

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I am appalled at the lack of tolerance and leadership of the Orange Unified school board regarding its vote against the Gay-Straight Alliance club.

Board members have stomped on the civil rights of students who wished to form a club that seeks to bring together homosexual and heterosexual students in a forum that would foster tolerance.

I am a practicing Roman Catholic. If a club that promotes gay and lesbian understanding cannot be tolerated in our schools, then all noncurriculum clubs should also be banned. I specifically want Protestant Christian clubs closed immediately, since Protestants sanction divorce. Divorce is the real threat to the American family.

I have been warned the Orange Curtain stops intellectual freedom and civil liberties from taking their rightful place in Orange County.

Well, the Berlin Wall fell, and now it is time for the Orange Curtain to fall with its outdated beliefs and bankrupt ideologies of justice for only the rich, powerful and heterosexual.

B. DEAN RINER

Laguna Beach