Gay Students Seek Ruling Against School District

Lawyers representing the two teenage founders of a gay student support group filed a motion in court Wednesday to force the Orange Unified School District to allow the group to meet on campus.

Two national legal groups asked a U.S. District Court judge to grant them a preliminary injunction at a hearing set for Jan. 24. That action would allow the students to hold meetings at El Modena High School while their federal civil rights lawsuit wends its way through the courts.

“We’re asking that, while the lawsuit is pending, the court require that these students be given the same rights accorded all other student groups at the school--and that includes the right to meet at the school during noninstructional time,” said Judith E. Schaeffer, legal director for the People for the American Way Foundation, one of the groups representing the student plaintiffs.

The school board unanimously barred the club from meeting on campus last month, on the grounds that students were likely to discuss sexual topics that are regulated by the state’s Education Code.

The students proposed the club--in which gay and straight teenagers meet to talk about coming out, discrimination and tolerance--at the beginning of the school year. However, the club’s few meetings have taken place outdoors, across the street from school grounds.

The school district’s lawyer said he viewed the move for an injunction as unreasonable, because the teenagers have been offered classroom space as long as they they don’t talk about topics the school board deems taboo.