Masked Group Disrupts Meeting
A meeting of Orange Unified School District’s board was adjourned abruptly Thursday after a fracas between school administrators and about 30 masked protesters supporting a controversial club at El Modena High School.
Fred Frobeck, operations supervisor for the district, said two administrators received minor injuries: one a deep scratch on the wrist, another a bite on the arm. Police said no arrests were made.
The Gay-Straight Alliance at El Modena has been a topic of heated controversy for months, and school board sessions have drawn protesters.Thursday’s scuffle began about 9 p.m. during a speech by Donna Sigalas, an outspoken opponent of the campus club.
According to witnesses, several people wearing black garb and bandannas or ski masks rushed to the front of the room and tried to wrest a microphone away from Sigalas. When school administrators stepped in to stop them, witnesses said, the protesters fled.
The school board last December denied the gay-straight club access to El Modena’s campus on the grounds that student discussions could impede the district’s sex-education curriculum. Proponents of the club, however, won a court injunction allowing them to meet.
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