Memo Stirs Pot in Gay Campus Club Suit

El Modena High School’s principal may have stymied student efforts to create a gay support club on campus more than two years ago, according to a memo presented Monday in court as evidence in a lawsuit alleging the Orange Unified School District has intentionally discriminated against such clubs.

Attorneys for the students who filed suit against the district say the memo shows that district administrators stalled student efforts to form the club in the past, although the teenagers have that right under federal law.

The September 1999 memo by Assistant Supt. Neil McKinnon, responding to a second effort to form a gay club, said, “Last year when this came up, [El Modena Principal] Nancy Murray and I conferred and she was able to stall them off until the end of the year.”

Murray has denied making any efforts to keep students from forming a club during the 1997-98 school year.

But Laura W. Brill, who represents the students in the lawsuit, said, “The memo seems to be an admission that students in earlier years who tried to form the groups were discriminated against. It suggests that high-level district officials were aware of efforts to prevent students from meeting.”

In the lawsuit, the student co-founders of the Gay-Straight Alliance Club, Anthony Colin and Heather Zetin, claim that under the federal Equal Access Act, El Modena High must allow the club if it has other extracurricular clubs and accepts federal money, as it does.

Some El Modena students told The Times that Murray had discouraged them during the 1997-98 school year from forming a club by first telling them they had to revise their application. Later, they said, she told the students that their efforts were endangering all clubs at the school.

One club organizer contends that he was transferred from the school in retaliation for his efforts. Murray denies that she discouraged the students or that retaliatory transfers took place. She agrees that she asked for revisions and told them their effort could hurt other clubs.

Murray would not comment on the memo revealed Monday. McKinnon did not return phone calls. Orange Unified School District attorney James Bowles said that McKinnon has testified in a deposition that the memo was intended only to indicate that the earlier application process had run out of time, not that it had been intentionally held up.

U.S. District Judge David O. Carter said Monday that if the students who submitted the applications during the 1997-98 school year were seniors at the time, the plaintiffs would have a strong argument that school officials were trying to “outlast” the applicants, simply waiting until they graduated to make the proposed club go away.

The school district’s attorneys said they didn’t know if the students were seniors at the time. Two of the students, Amber Pfeifer and Jonathan Terech, said they were indeed seniors at the time.

McKinnon’s September memo, addressed to district Supt. Barbara Van Otterloo, also said Murray was planning to meet with the latest student applicants and, as she had done previously, suggest that they rework their application.

“She is not optimistic that this approach will resolve the issues,” McKinnon wrote. “Barring that, I need direction on how to proceed. If she denies the request, I will be the point of appeal. I do not mind fighting this issue, but we need to strategize where it is going to and plan appropriately.”

Discussion of the applications arose at a hearing Monday, when Carter heard arguments on whether school board members should be subject to questioning by the club’s lawyers before the trial begins.

He will rule on the issue Wednesday, but said he will probably permit questioning.

Trustees voted down the gay student support club’s application in December. Carter has ruled that the group can meet on campus until the lawsuit goes to trial.

Times staff writer Ann L. Kim contributed to this story.