El Modena Students Sue District for Right to Convene Gay Club

Backed by two national legal groups, a pair of El Modena High School students filed a lawsuit Wednesday that would force Orange Unified administrators to let their Gay-Straight Alliance club meet on campus.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the People for the American Way Foundation and the law firm Irell & Manella, which has offices in Los Angeles and Orange County.

The students, 10th-grader Anthony Colin and 11th-grader Heather Zetin, both 15, are the latest plaintiffs in a string of lawsuits filed by gay student groups nationwide under a 1984 federal law known as the Equal Access Act, originally enacted to enable Bible clubs to meet in public schools.

The law says that if a public secondary school allows any nonacademic club to meet on campus, it must afford the same opportunity to other such student groups. El Modena has more than 20 other extracurricular student clubs, ranging from the Christian Club to the ‘80s Club.

“Those groups are currently meeting, so our position is that [the district] can’t discriminate against this group of students that wants to meet,” said Jon Davidson, supervising attorney at the Lambda organization’s Western regional office in Los Angeles.

The lawsuit also alleges violations of the students’ constitutional rights to free speech and association and to equal protection under the law, and violations of their state constitutional rights.

Orange Unified School District spokeswoman Judy Frutig said district officials would not discuss the lawsuit. Colin and Zetin first moved in September to form the club, which Colin described as “a support group that promotes tolerance, acceptance, respect and love.”

The Gay-Straight Alliance was prevented from having a table at the school’s club day in October, when student groups are able to pass out information and recruit students. Nonetheless, organizers say they have signatures from more than 50 students who expressed interest in joining the club.

The school board held a public hearing on the issue Nov. 9 and has since postponed a vote on the matter at least until the next board meeting Dec. 7.

“By Dec. 7 it will have been three months since an application to meet was submitted, and the fall semester will be practically over. What the school district will have done is prevent them from meeting,” Davidson said. “[That] already constitutes discrimination.”

Without an official meeting place at school, the Gay-Straight Alliance held its first meeting Nov. 23 on the sidewalk across the street from campus after school. Eight students attended, Zetin said.

“We talked about how we felt about the board’s decision to delay [the club]. We talked about our opinions on homosexuals getting married,” Zetin said. “It was just a conversation we’d have with our friends, but it was a Gay-Straight Alliance meeting. There wasn’t anything controversial.

“I think the club is necessary because we need a place for gay kids to just come and be themselves and express themselves and get support from people without fear of what people will say to them or do to them,” Zetin said.

Plaintiff Promises to Push for Club

Colin said he is disappointed he has had to sue the school district but vowed to keep pressing for the club.

“I’m setting a precedent that any student in America can stand up for their rights,” he said. “I’m that one voice that is going to be speaking for thousands.”

Colin, who said he has been threatened and taunted by fellow students over his sexuality, has filed about 10 harassment complaints with school officials in his two years as an El Modena student. He says he also filed a police report two months ago because a student chased him with a car after school.

“The school district has to understand there are all kinds of different kids that attend public schools,” said Colin’s mother, Jessie Colin. “I thought the club was an excellent idea to teach understanding and provide education.

“At first it started as a child issue--for one child to learn from another and understand each other,” she said. “Now it’s a battlefield for adults.”

Wednesday’s lawsuit seeks a court order forcing the district to allow the club to meet.

Elliot Mincberg, legal director at the People for the American Way Foundation, said he would be thrilled if the board votes on Dec. 7 to allow the students to meet. “If not, we’ll be in the position to gain immediate relief for the students.”

“By filing the complaint now, what we’re saying is there has been a violation of the law because so much time has passed,” Mincberg said.

The El Modena case is the fourth such lawsuit against a school district by students seeking to form such clubs. A suit in Denver ended in a consent decree that allowed the students to meet. In a New Hampshire school district, students were allowed to form a club shortly after they sued the district. And Salt Lake City school officials closed 46 other student groups rather than allow students to form a Gay-Straight Alliance. That lawsuit is pending.

About 600 Gay-Straight Alliance clubs from across the country--most at high schools and some at middle schools--have registered with the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, a group based in New York that promotes respect for gay and lesbian students in schools.

Times correspondent Marissa Espino contributed to this story.