LAWYER: DISTRICT CAN'T CUT JUST GAY CLUB

The question of whether a club for gay and lesbian students should be allowed at Dimond High School generated electronic mail from Outside to school board members last week, and passionate testimony pro and con at Monday's board meeting, but no change in the school district's policy.

However, two School Board members said they are concerned that the club's agenda could be influenced by Outside pro-gay rights groups.

The board discussed its policy regarding clubs at a work session before its regular meeting Monday, and then heard testimony during a half hour alloted for items not scheduled for action.

School district attorney Howard Trickey advised the board that it should allow the Dimond High club, called the Gay/Straight Alliance, if it allows any student clubs not directly tied to academic offerings.

Trickey told the board federal law allows clubs to be banned if they're disruptive to education - but at the same time, the district has a legal obligation to prevent harrasment, including harrasment of gay and lesbian students.

If the district disbanded the Gay/Straight Alliance because other students protested against the club, the district "exposes itself to liability" based on harrasment of the club members, he said in a written opinion. "Actions which penalize the alleged victims, i.e., denying recognition to the gay and lesbian student club, could increase the risk of liability for the district," his opinion noted. Board member Kathi Gillespie, who had asked the board to discuss its club policy, said she agrees the district can't exclude the Dimond club.

But, she said, she still is concerned about the club and about possible influences of national pro-gay groups on its agenda.

Gillespie said she amassed a thick notebook of material from an Internet site featuring proponents of "equity" for gay and lesbian students in public education. [hmm, I wonder what site that might have been :-) ]

The site includes samples for changing curriculum, such as using same-sex couples in math problems and history lessons. "The concern I have is the interest in changing the curriculum, and changing the culture through the public school system," Gillespie said in an interview.

Board member Lorraine Ferrell said the Internet site contains a handbook for organizing such student clubs, with suggestions for student surveys on sexual orientation, and for assemblies.

She told the board, "I had some real red flags go up and felt real alarmed" reading some of the suggestions on the site.

Ferrell said in an interview she doesn't appreciate the electronic mail board members have been getting pro-gay rights activists in the Lower 48. "This is a local issue we're trying to deal with," she said.

Dimond High Principal Pat McDowell told the board that while material such as Ferrell and Gillespie described exists, "What comes into our club meetings is not the same thing at all."

She said the club is student-directed; the teachers who are sponsors are responsible for making sure it stays within the parameters of its purpose, and is guided by students and not outsiders, she said.

(Anchorage teachers) Union president Rich Kronberg told the board the controversy was created by "those students and adults who have harrassed, intimidated and assaulted students based simply on the belief that these students were gay." he added,"The response to the formation of the club from certain elements in the community has demonstrated, as nothing else could have, the need for such a club."

Kronberg said the union's executive board has not taken an official position on the Dimond club but has a long standing policy supporting tolerance and opposing discrimination.

Mears Junior High teacher Joe Fleming told the board the district was wrong to allow the club. "It will put 2,000 students in the position of being confused, and possibly recruited," he said. "The purpose of the club is to prove that this lifestyle is normal."

The federal law governing clubs gives districts that accept federal money two choices: They can limit high school clubs to those directly related to academics; or, if they decide to allow nonacademic clubs, they cannot deny any club based based on a group's philosophical, political or religious viewpoints.