O.C. District’s New Rules for Clubs Trigger More Protests

The Orange school board’s latest reaction to a gay support club led Friday to more questions and challenges from parents and lawyers about whether its new policies violate state regulations and might prevent other popular clubs from operating.

The Orange Unified School District board voted unanimously Thursday to ban from middle and elementary schools any clubs not tied to schoolwork. It also instructed its lawyer to draft motions that would: require high school students who want to join extracurricular clubs to get parents’ permission; ban discussion of sexual activity in the clubs; and require C averages of students who join.

The proposals immediately came under criticism from a variety of sources, ranging from parents angry that their children might lose valued clubs to attorneys for the founders of the Gay-Straight Alliance at El Modena High School, who said they were trying to decide whether to take further legal action.

District administrators, meanwhile, were pondering how to implement the new policies and how to define an extracurricular club. Judy Frutig, the school district spokeswoman, said the superintendent and assistant superintendent planned to meet early next week to figure out which clubs are affected. Among the banned groups could be service clubs, which raise money or otherwise help the disadvantaged.

One way to keep service clubs at middle schools, Frutig said, would be to require community service for graduation as part of the curriculum.

The board banned the middle-school clubs to ensure they had a policy in place should younger students attempt to start a gay support club.

Trustee Terri Sargeant acknowledged that middle school club guidelines aren’t clear but said the board felt the need to act quickly.

“People think we had this [proposal] days in advance, but we got it at 7 [p.m.] in closed session,” she said. The guidelines may have to be clarified “to make sure we haven’t adversely affected the middle schools.”

If the other proposals pass, the district will have further issues to figure out. If sexual activity cannot be discussed, wondered Anthony Scariano, a member of the National School Boards Assn.’s Council of School Attorneys, does that mean a group couldn’t discuss Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with his slaves? And what about a Christian club that talks about abstaining from sex? Or the Girls’ League, which talks about dating?

“The school board has never expressed any concern whether heterosexuals were discussing sex,” said Judith Schaeffer, an attorney for the gay support club founders and deputy legal director of People for the American Way.

The Orange school board banned the gay student club from campus in December, but a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction last week that allows the group to meet.

The district’s new policy on middle-school clubs drew an immediate outcry from parents.

Denise Bittle, president of the parent-teacher group at Cerro Villa Middle School, said she assumes it means that four of the 10 student groups on campus are banned, including the Pep Club, an anti-drug group and a group that resolves student conflicts.

Middle school students and parents, she said, were blindsided by the sudden decision. “It’s basically a reactionary situation that didn’t solve their problem,” Bittle said. “They still have the [gay student club] at the high school and we don’t have the clubs.”

Kathy Leimkuhler, active in parents’ organizations at Cerro Villa Middle School and Serrano Elementary, said the policy didn’t make sense to her. “Even Russia isn’t like this anymore,” she said. “It’s kind of sick, isn’t it? When the next controversy comes up, are they going to come up with another set of rules? Where does it end?”

Peter Eliasberg, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said he found the board’s actions legally dubious because the purpose seems to be to keep students from joining the El Modena club.

“The judge should be very concerned this is just an end run around his ruling,” he said. “It’s one thing to enforce a long-existing policy, but it’s another thing to put this policy in after losing in court and taking a bunch of illegal efforts to stop this and then pulling this out of their bag of tricks.”

Terry Francke, general counsel for the California First Amendment Coalition, said the district also might find that banning talk of sexual activity conflicts with the state Education Code. The only reason to censor speech, he said, would be to prevent obscenity or libel or a situation that would lead to a violation of the law or disruption of education.

The Glendale Unified School District also had a controversy over the establishment of a high school gay club in 1996. The school board backed down from its plan to require parental permission and instead decided to send parents a list of clubs and activities the school offered at the beginning of each school year.

Donald Emprey, the deputy superintendent, said the notification has worked well.