D R A M A++Q U E E N

What's the worst thing your mother ever did to you? Send your submission to theDrama Queen for a Day contest

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T A B L E++T A L K

Culture wars: How do you shelter your kids from the negative influences of popular culture? Join the discussion in Table Talk's Mothers area

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R E C E N T L Y

Infant Revolution
By Dawn Mackeen
The children who are giving Nike a dressing down
(05/29/98)

No turning back
By Sallie Tisdale
At what point do you need to tell your child he can't come home again?
(05/28/98)

My son, the cross-dresser
By Lisen Stromberg
Why are tomboys cute but "janegirls" weird?
(05/27/98)

Back to my future
By Lori Leibovich
Dancing cheek to cheek with your high school self
(05/26/98)

Coming clean about her trashy life
By Lori Leibovich
In "Other People's Dirt," a housekeeper dishes about her dirty work
(05/22/98)

BROWSE THE MOTHERS WHO THINKARCHIVES

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Mamafesto
By Camille Peri
Why it's time
for Mothers Who Think

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THE SHOWDOWN AT SAN LEANDRO HIGH | PAGE 2 OF 3

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What exactly happened between the two girls is disputed. Both have repeatedly insisted they had done nothing offensive or improper. Neither would be interviewed for this article, but one of the 15-year-olds told a Berkeley weekly, the East Bay Express, they were merely "giving each other a peck on the lips, on the cheek," although she admitted that "a couple times we French-kissed." The girl also denied that the couple fondled one another. "It may have looked like she had her hand on my butt," she averred, but she insisted the other girl's hands were "on my waist."

Others, however, saw it differently. "I was standing in front of the school with some friends when two girls started kissing and feeling on each other in a very sexual way," reported a student who beheld from just a few feet away the same erotic encounter Volpa told of seeing from his classroom window. The 11th grader described the conduct she observed as "totally inappropriate to do at school, even for a boy and girl," and said she was "totally grossed out" by the display.

The two girls were twice more accused of committing sexual indecencies -- once in the girl's lavatory at school and again in a public restroom at an off-campus football game. In the first episode, which allegedly occurred several days after the public kissing incident, chief custodian Lucy Bignone was sent to investigate a student's complaint about the same couple "making out" in the girl's restroom at school. "One was sitting on the toilet, the other was between her legs with her head in the first girl's lap," Bignone told me. When I asked whether they were engaging in sex, Bignone reacted to the question with obvious embarrassment. "I don't know what they were doing," she replied. "But whatever it was, I told 'em they couldn't do it in the bathroom, and to get out." In the second episode, the mother of a football player told the team's coach that the girls had been seen misbehaving in a restroom. The coach confirmed that the mother had told him that, but said that when he asked the woman if she would talk to me about the incident, she refused. "She doesn't want to get involved," he said. Whether these incidents were reported to the administration is unclear; in any case, no further action was taken against the students.

Meanwhile, other events threw gasoline on the fire. October had been designated as Gay History Month at the high school, and some teachers -- most of them newly hired that fall -- sported bright pink, triangular-shaped pins declaring, "Someone You Love Is Gay Or Lesbian." Then one of the faculty novices, who asked that her name not be used, decided to "come out" to her 9th grade science class. According to several of her students, she declared herself a lesbian and spent much of a class period lauding the accomplishments of lesbians and gays throughout the ages. Science department chair Judy Larson told me she supported the teacher's "coming out" to her students, even though the young instructor failed to consult with her beforehand. She was pursuing a valid educational objective by dispelling negative stereotypes about homosexuals, according to Larson, and fostering a positive role model for youngsters struggling to come to terms with their own budding homosexuality.

But when some of the her students related what they had heard in class to their parents, several complained to the administration. The teacher's supporters defended her on equity grounds. Heterosexual teachers sometimes talk about their spouses or children and even teach classes in the obvious late stages of pregnancy, they said: Isn't that advertising one's "lifestyle" and sexual orientation? But her detractors scoffed at the suggestion that mentioning a wife or husband, being pregnant in class or passing around baby pictures was analogous to making value-laden pronouncements about homosexuality before a captive audience.

Then a hometown newspaper, the San Leandro Times, published a letter from John Cambra, the father of a 15-year-old boy who attends the high school, describing the sexual behavior attributed to the lesbian students and protesting the school's censure of the teacher who tried to reprimand them. Cambra also wrote that he was "appalled to discover the existence of a homosexual club" operating on campus. He was referring to the Gay/Straight Alliance, an extracurricular club founded four years ago by Terry Minton, an openly gay drama teacher, and English teacher Karl Debro, who is heterosexual. "Enough is enough!" Cambra declared in his letter. "This type of conduct will not be tolerated and the irresponsible teachers and administrators that have supported it need to be fired." He concluded by inviting concerned parents to a meeting.

Principal Leigh Akins responded a week later with her own letter to the Times, claiming that "no students were engaged in sexual activities" at the high school. "Overt public displays of affection by any student are considered inappropriate," she added, "and are dealt with on an individual basis." Akins also claimed that "No teacher has received a letter of reprimand regarding students showing affection in front of the school." Yet Volpa has provided me with a copy of the memo he received from Bob Williams, which is entitled "Reprimand" and bears the assistant principal's signature. According to Volpa, the memo was withdrawn after he complained to a school board member and the local teachers union threatened to file a grievance. Williams has failed to respond to requests for his comment on the matter.

"We do have a Gay/Straight Alliance on campus," Akins acknowledged in her letter to the Times, "and its purpose is to promote safety and equality for all students and staff. It is not an advocacy group." Yet the G/SA's advocacy role is well known at the high school, and readily acknowledged by gay activists. "Gay/Straight Alliances are independent groups that grew out of GLSEN," acknowledges the organization's chief advocate, Kate Frankfurt. The first such alliance was formed at the Concord Academy in Massachusetts, by GLSEN founder Kevin Jennings. "They're not little armies," Frankfurt says, "but when controversies arise, they're primed to respond." GLSEN board member Grant Peterson estimates there are between 19 and 24 G/SA chapters in high schools scattered throughout the East Bay. "We're way ahead of most of the country," he boasts. (Neither he nor anyone else seems to know how many high school students in the Bay Area are G/SA members, or how many at San Leandro High have joined the organization.)

The disingenuousness of Principal Akins' response to parental anxieties only fueled the controversy. And if the GSA's role as an advocate had somehow escaped Akins' notice, it was about to be made embarrassingly obvious to her.

N E X T+P A G E: "Leave the values to the parents."