Gay Teacher Fights Defections From His Classes

BAKERSFIELD —  One by one, the parents began pulling their children out of James Merrick’s eighth-grade classroom.

The teacher’s mannerisms were distracting and the language he used in front of students was suspect, they told school officials. And they didn’t like the way he spoke out in the community about gay issues.

Since classes began in September at the rural Rio Bravo-Greeley Union School, 15 students--10 boys and five girls--have been removed from Merrick’s science classes, all of them against his will.

The 61-year-old instructor, who two years ago won a Teacher of the Year award, said the transfers were hurtful but not wholly unexpected, responses to the public’s having learned that he is gay.

“When it comes to being homosexual in Bakersfield,” he said, “there’s a lot of hatred, a lot of misunderstanding and a total lack of information.”

So Merrick decided to fight back. He has filed a discrimination complaint with the state’s Division of Labor Standards Enforcement and another with the one-school district of 800 students.

Merrick contends that the district’s decision to grant wholesale parental requests for student transfers based solely on his sexual orientation is a form of discrimination that is illegal in California. He says he wants his students back.

The California Teachers Assn. and a gay rights group are considering filing separate lawsuits on Merrick’s behalf.

Gay activists say that discrimination against teachers on the basis of their sexual orientation is common. But few teachers have pressed the matter in formal complaints.

“It’s very common for gay teachers to feel they must be closeted, that if their sexual orientation becomes known, they’ll be fired or harassed so severely they’ll have to quit,” said Jennifer Pizer, a managing attorney for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund in Los Angeles, which has consulted with Merrick about their potential lawsuit.

“What’s unusual about this case is that a teacher has the willingness to stand up and challenge it,” she said.

A few other gay and lesbian teachers across the nation have taken the same approach. An Oceanside biology teacher filed suit in 1996, charging that school officials refused to protect her from harassment that included vandalism to her classroom and homophobic comments at staff meetings. The case, dismissed in Superior Court, is now on appeal. And last week, Lambda filed its own lawsuit on behalf of the teacher.

Last month, a Utah judge struck down a school district policy that prohibited a lesbian teacher from speaking publicly about her sexual orientation.

“The courts have ruled that prejudice cannot be the basis for a school district’s response to teacher harassment--and we think that includes parents suddenly pulling their kids from a classroom,” said Kevin Jennings, executive director of the New York-based Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

The California teachers union agrees. Del Gardner, a spokesman for the union in Bakersfield, said the state labor code prohibits “different treatment in any aspect of employment on the basis of actual or perceived sexual orientation.”

School officials insist that the issue is not Merrick’s homosexuality but parents’ right to educate their children in the way they see fit.

“Our position is that we’ve always given parents the last say about their kids,” said Rio Bravo-Greeley district Supt. Gerald Higbee. “We tell them, ‘They’re your children. You’ve just loaned them to us for six hours each day. And if we’re not meeting your needs, then we’re missing the boat.’ ”

Merrick’s principal, Ernie Unruh, said he told complaining parents that a teacher’s sexual orientation was not an acceptable or lawful reason for a transfer but ultimately moved the students anyway.

Unruh doesn’t believe that he has broken any laws and says he is just following a school district policy that gives parents a say in such matters. In 15 previous requests for student transfers involving other teachers, school officials have always sided with parents, he said.

“The kids,” Unruh said, “are caught in the middle of this.”

Mary Ann Ronk, who removed her foster son from Merrick’s class, contends that the teacher flaunts his homosexuality by bringing his partner to school and sporting gay-oriented bumper stickers on his car.

“His body movements are different than a normal man teacher,” Ronk said. “He rubs his hands over his chest and makes boys in class uncomfortable. His use of the English language is also just plain weird. When a student talks too loud, he’ll tell them, ‘Your voice molests me.’ In my book, that’s inappropriate behavior for any teacher.”

Last year, Merrick consented to a student’s transfer from his class after a parent expressed concerns that the teacher is gay. Still, Merrick said he has never mentioned his sexual orientation to students.

Even though he is out of the closet, Merrick said he still considers his homosexuality a delicate personal issue. Long before the controversy he told select teachers at school that he is gay and once even invited Principal Unruh to a talk he gave at a local church on gay issues.

The teacher’s sexual orientation became public this summer after he challenged a member of the Kern County Human Relations Commission who stated publicly that all homosexuals were sick and that he wouldn’t want his child to be taught by a gay teacher. His child was not in Merrick’s class.

The attitude is not unusual in socially conservative Bakersfield, Merrick and activists say. The teacher said his coming out has made him a pariah at the tiny school, which sits amid rolling alfalfa fields.

For the 40-year classroom veteran, who in 1996 won the Chamber of Commerce’s Teacher of the Year award, the exodus also has meant strained relations with his 165 remaining students. He said there are uncomfortable moments in the teachers lounge--where colleagues avoid eye contact--and hostile stares from parents.

Merrick, a father of four grown children who lives with his male partner but remains close to his wife of 45 years, said he filed his complaint when the gossip and innuendo became too much to tolerate. He hopes to combat closely held attitudes that his homosexuality casts him as a potential child predator in the eyes of many parents.

“There’s no doubt some parents believe I will attempt to convert their children to homosexuality or that I’ll put a move on them after class,” he said. “Not only do they not believe that gays are proper role models for their kids, they’re repulsed and sickened by them. And in this community, they’re not afraid to speak out about it.”

Indeed, everyone is talking around this school located within earshot of Interstate 5, a place where student interest in 4-H and farm hobbies challenges football and other sports.

Some parents said Merrick’s presence in the classroom doesn’t bother them as long as he leaves his sexual orientation at home.

But down at the Red Wagon cafe in the nearby town of Shafter, opinions are different. Co-owner Carolyn LaRue believes that putting children in a classroom with a gay man is like throwing them into a lion’s den.

“I’m a worldly person, but I don’t want young children thinking that this business of being a homosexual is OK,” she said. “What if some kid wants to idolize this character and goes out and tries something funny with one of his friends? He’ll end up feeling dirty for the rest of his life.”

LaRue was shocked to hear that Merrick was open about his orientation.

“He admits he’s gay?” she smirked. “He should have kept his mouth shut in this town.”

Merrick didn’t come to Bakersfield with plans to become a poster boy for the rural gay movement.

An extremely private man, he came out to his wife, Nancy, 20 years ago, but told few others besides his own children.

After working abroad for most of his career--in Canada, Germany and Puerto Rico--the Chino native, who holds a doctorate in education, moved back to California five years ago to be close to his aging parents.

Just before he left Puerto Rico, a close friend there died of AIDS. When Merrick and his wife arrived in Bakersfield, Merrick called a local gay organization seeking emotional help with his grief.

That’s how he met Norman Prigge, a 60-year-old retired Cal State Bakersfield philosophy professor and local gay activist. In an arrangement that might raise eyebrows anywhere, the two moved in together and bought Nancy a house nearby. The three meet for dinner regularly.

Merrick took a job at Rio Bravo-Greeley with plans to work another year or so until he retired, content to keep his personal life secret.

Then last May he attended a meeting of the Kern County Human Relations Commission, where he heard the Rev. Douglas Hearn, a commission member, criticize all that he stood for. “He said gays were sick, that they shouldn’t be teachers,” Merrick said. “I just couldn’t stand for that.”

He wrote a letter to the local newspaper, which soon published stories about Hearn’s comments. In ensuing months, Merrick became active in a highly publicized effort to force Hearn to resign.

Merrick said he has never publicly declared his homosexuality but does not deny that he is gay.

In an interview, Hearn said he stands by his remarks.

“I don’t think the classroom is the place for a gay teacher,” he said. “They don’t realize anything is wrong with them. We all know that they’re physically, mentally and spiritually sick.”

In September, Merrick reported to Rio Bravo for fall classes and was informed by school officials that three parents had asked their children to be removed from his class.

“I told them there were a lot of gay kids in junior high school,” Merrick said, “and that by taking kids out of my class, they would send a message that there’s something wrong with me and something wrong with them.”

Other parents soon followed suit, and Merrick began feeling a chill between him and fellow teachers he thought were his friends.

Rio Bravo-Greeley teachers association President Carol Newbury said Merrick is immensely popular and highly regarded by students and teachers. Still, he enjoys little support among his 40 colleagues on the issue of his coming out.

“This is an extremely religious, conservative faculty, like the community,” Newbury said. “There’s very little tolerance here.”

But teacher Gail Schulz wonders how far administrators will go.

“When’s it going to stop? Are they going to take all of Jim’s kids away?” she asked. “And are we next as teachers? Are they going to start removing our students because parents don’t like that we’re Jewish or black or that they saw us take a drink at some bar?”

Nancy Merrick is disturbed by the school’s treatment of her husband. “Bakersfield should be renamed Salem, Massachusetts--the home of witch hunts for narrow-minded people,” she said.

Many locals see only a stereotype, she said, not the real person.

“The hysterical geeks you see running around San Francisco may be gay, but they would compare to Jim like you might identify me as a prostitute just because I am a woman.”