RENE PARADIS, ATTORNEY AT LAW

2010 EL CAMINO REAL, SANTA CLARA TOWN CENTER, STE. 1016 SANTA CLARA, CA 95050
renee@reneeparadisattorney.com (929) 327-4534

October 17, 2017

Vicki Hildreth
Activities Director
South Torrance High School
4801 Pacific Coast Highway
Torrance, California 90505
hildreth.vicki@tusd.org
Via certified mail and email

Dear Ms. Hildreth:

We represent Cade Crowell, a student at South Torrance High School. We believe you are
familiar with Mr. Crowell and his efforts to start a Young Democratic Socialists of America
(YDSA) chapter as a student club at South Torrance High School. Our understanding from Mr.
Crowell is that you refused to provide him with the materials necessary to apply to the student
council for official recognition of this school club, stating that his club might cause other
political clubs to form, creating controversy, and that for this reason the administration had
decided he was not permitted to form a YDSA chapter.

As an initial matter, this refusal to provide Mr. Crowell with the materials to start his club is in
clear violation of the school districts own policy. Torrance School Board Administrative Rule
6145.5 provides in relevant part that school officials shall not deny any student-initiated
student group access to school facilities during noninstructional time on the basis of . . . political
. . . content of speech to be addressed at such meetings.

More gravely, however, this refusal violates Mr. Crowells rights under both California and
federal law. Mr. Crowell, like any student in a public school, enjoys the protection of the First
Amendment for his right to speak and associate while in school so long as those activities do not
(1) materially and substantially disrupt the operation of the school, or (2) materially and
substantially harm the well-being, or otherwise invade the rights, of others. Tinker v. Des Moines
Independent Community School Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 513-14 (1969).

This right has been codified by Congress under the federal Equal Access Act (EAA), which
provides that if a public high school allows any student group whose purpose is not directly
related to the schools curriculum to meet on school grounds during lunch or before or after
school, it has created a limited public forum or limited open forum and thus cannot deny other
student groups the same access to the school because of the content of their proposed
discussions. See 20 U.S.C. 4071(b); Gay-Straight Alliance of Yulee High Sch. v. School Board of Nassau
Cty., 602 F. Supp. 2d 1233 (M.D. Fla. 2009) (granting preliminary injunction requiring school
 RENE PARADIS, ATTORNEY AT LAW

district to permit a Gay-Straight Alliance so long as the district maintained a limited forum
under the EAA and the First Amendment).

As the federal district court for the Central District of California, covering Torrance, has
explained,

The only way to maintain the independence and vigor of Americans who grow
up here is through tolerating speech that school authorities may vehemently
disagree with. Tinker, 393 U.S. at 509. Our history says that it is this sort of
hazardous freedom--this kind of openness--that is the basis of our national
strength. Id. at 508-509. The democratic response to speech that people disagree
with is more speech: by allowing students to express both the popular and
unpopular viewpoints society can foster enlightened opinion. Cantwell v.
Connecticut, 310 U.S. 296, 310, (1940). Secondary school students are mature
enough and are likely to understand that a school does not endorse or support
student speech that it merely permits on a nondiscriminatory basis. Board of
Education of the Westside Community Schools v. Mergens, 496 U.S. 226, 250, 110 S. Ct.
2356, 110 L. Ed. 2d 191 (1990).

Colin ex rel. Colin v. Orange Unified Sch. Dist., 83 F. Supp. 2d 1135, 1141. Because South Torrance high
has opened the door to non-curricular clubs on campus, it is required by law to permit the YDSA
club. Under United States Supreme Court precedent, a non-curricular student group is any
group that does not directly relate to courses offered by the school. Board of Education v. Mergens,
496 U.S. 226 (1990) (holding that a curriculum-related student group is one that has more than
just a tangential or attenuated relationship to courses offered by the school). South Torrances
web site lists numerous non-curricular clubs including:

American Red Cross

Amnesty International
Apollo Athena
Best Buddies
Cakes For Kids
Connect Club
Environmental Club
G.S.A. (Gay Straight Alliance)
Habitat for Humanity
Interact Club
Kapamilya (aka The Filipino Club or Pamana)
KIWINS
 RENE PARADIS, ATTORNEY AT LAW

Model U.N.
Student League
T.C.A.A. (Taiwanese Chinese Asian Assoc.)

Importantly, in judging whether a student club will cause disruption, a school cannot look to
those who would oppose the club. Doing so would result in an unconstitutional hecklers veto,
where a students right to free speech is abridged because of his potential opponents. School
officials are not permitted to restrict [students] speech and association as a means of
preventing disruptive responses to it. Boyd Cty. High Sch. Gay Straight All. v. Bd. of Educ., 258 F. Supp.
2d 667, 690 (E.D. Ky. 2003).

The California Constitution also provides protection to student speech against a hecklers veto.
Where school officials were merely concerned with "avoid[ing] the discomfort and
unpleasantness that always accompany" an unpopular or unorthodox point of view, courts have
not hesitated to find those actions unlawful. Dibona v. Matthews, 220 Cal. App. 3d 1329, 1334
(1990). Of particular historical interest may be Goodman v. Bd. of Educ., 48 Cal. App. 2d 731 (1941),
where the First Appellate District found that it violated the education code, which creates a
civic center in each California public school, to deny the Socialist Partys request to use a school
auditorium to discuss the subject of peace. Whatever discretion was reposed in respondent
board, it was not intended that one public group should receive favors denied another of like
character because the latter holds views contrary to those of the first group. Id. at 734.

We write to request that you immediately provide Mr. Crowell with the materials necessary to
form a YDSA chapter at South Torrance High School and desist from any attempts to prevent
him from doing so. While we are confident that upon your review of this letter, you will do so,
we are prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to protect the rights of our client, Mr.
Crowell. Please either provide these materials to Mr. Crowell or respond to this letter within ten
business days.

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 RENE PARADIS, ATTORNEY AT LAW
2010 EL CAMINO REAL, SANTA CLARA TOWN CENTER, STE. 1016 SANTA CLARA, CA 95050
renee@reneeparadisattorney.com (929) 327-4534

Sincerely,

Rene Paradis
Attorney at Law

Noah Baron
Attorney at Law

David Paesani
Attorney at Law

Cc: Dr. Scott McDowell, Principal, South Torrance High School, via certified mail and email to
mcdowell.scott@tusd.org
Dr. George Mannon, Superintendent, Torrance Unified School District, 2335 Plaza Del
Amo, Torrance, CA 90501, via certified mail and email to superintendent@tusd.org
Terry Ragins, President, Torrance Board of Education, 2335 Plaza Del Amo, Torrance, CA
90501, via certified mail and email to ragins.terry@tusd.org
Cade Crowell