Joseph N. Bell -- THE BELL CURVE

I’d like to suggest some required reading for the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District’s board and administrators. It’s short, only 14 pages,

and a fast read. And it’s free if you have access to the Internet. Just

point your browser to o7 www.latimes.com/gayclubf7 .

What will come up is the text of U.S. District Court Judge David Carter’s

decision to grant a preliminary injunction on behalf of the Gay-Straight

Alliance Club of El Modena High School against the Orange Unified School

District Board of Education.

No weaseling here. The judge tends to write in clear, declarative

sentences.

For example: “The reason for the First Amendment’s ban on official

censorship is because in a free society we rely on the ‘marketplace of

ideas.’ Though the state education system has the awesome responsibility

of inculcating moral and political values, that does not permit educators

to act as ‘thought police’ inhibiting all discussion that is not approved

by and in accord with the official position of the state.”

This is our month at Newport-Mesa to study the problems of neighboring

school districts so we can avoid -- or at least be forewarned of --

educational pitfalls from which they are struggling to escape.

A few weeks ago, we learned from the Irvine Unified School District that

a very small group of voters can undermine a thriving school system, thus

dramatizing the importance of getting rid of the two-thirds requirement

for school bonds and underscoring the importance of getting out the

abysmally low vote in most school board and school bond elections.

Now, with the no-nonsense assistance of Carter, Orange Unified has shown

us what happens when a political and religious agenda supersedes both

educational priorities and the laws of our land in the governance of a

local school district.

If you have followed this story at all, you know the history. Two El

Modena students, with broad support from both gay and straight fellow

students, applied to school authorities for official recognition of a

club to be called the Gay-Straight Alliance. The club would be dedicated,

according to a mission statement, to “raising public awareness and

promoting tolerance by providing a safe forum for discussion of issues

related to sexual orientation and homophobia.”

Contrary to long-established policy of leaving such a decision to the

school administration, the school board demanded that it take over

approval in this instance.

After hearing arguments at a public forum and twice delaying a vote on

the matter while the students were pressured to change the name and

nature of their club, the board voted unanimously to deny the

application. The decision was accompanied by such comments from board

members -- quoted in the court document -- as “The Bible says we’re all

sinners, but this, in my opinion, is asking us to legitimize sin,” and

“We know the law is on their side, but our community members don’t want

it.”

The legal arguments raised by the attorneys for the board are all

discussed and then shot down by Carter in his ruling. They make

interesting and instructive reading.

But there’s a second lesson here that is outside the scope of this case

-- and is probably even more important for us to learn in Newport-Mesa.

The Orange Unified District has been in a state of hostility and

confrontation for several years that is now approaching chaos. California

Teachers Assn. president Wayne Johnson told the Los Angeles Times this

week, “I don’t know of any other district in the state -- and there are

990 -- where the level of anger and antagonism is anywhere near that of

Orange Unified.”

This is the residue of educational decisions made from the perspective of

political absolutism. Among other things, the Orange school board has

tried to free its campuses of state regulations on teacher credentials,

refused federal assistance funds, barred its schools from a

business-oriented and supported career program, canceled a state-funded

psychological counseling program and been in constant conflict with its

teachers over broken promises and much-needed raises.

As a result, some 350 teachers with a decade or more of experience have

left the district during the past three years.

As one teacher who has stuck it out was quoted as saying in a Feb. 6

Times Orange County article: “We hate to see a district we’ve loved and

worked in so long be destroyed.”

And the principal victims of all this ideological carnage are, of course,

the children who attend the schools.

This will be worth remembering when issues like the club at El Modena

come up in Newport-Mesa. Such a club did surface briefly last year, but

never got beyond the peripheral vision of the board. That was enough,

however, to inspire board member Wendy Leece to say in a Nov. 20 Daily

Pilot story: “Approving the club gives approval to teen sex.”

When this issue comes up again -- and it probably will -- you might want

to contrast Leece’s comment with this conclusion from Judge Carter’s

ruling: “The Board will not likely be able to show that groups of

students discussing homophobia and acceptance of all students regardless

of sexual orientation somehow serves as a major disruption to the

education of students. Indeed, this club is actually being formed to

avoid the disruptions to education that can take place when students are

harassed based on sexual orientation.”

* JOSEPH N. BELL is a resident of Santa Ana Heights. His column appears

Thursdays.