EAGLES Academy Central High School (also known as EAGLES Academy Hollywood and EAGLES Center) was a

public high school State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...

located in Hollywood, Los Angeles, with the target group of but not limited to gay,

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

, and transgender young people, as well as those questioning their sexuality and educational dropouts. It was founded and opened in 1992 along with the "Educational Options" program by the

Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in ...

(LAUSD); it closed down in 2004. It was the first public high school designed for LGBT youth from grade 7 onwards in the United States.

History

EAGLES Academy Central High School was a public high school run by the department of "Educational Options" of the LAUSD, also known as EAGLES Academy Hollywood and EAGLES Center.archived
press release "EAGLES Center expands services – sets sights on South Bay" of March 23, 1996. Retrieved June 9, 2018. EAGLES is an acronym from "Emphasizing Adolescent Gay Lesbian Education Services."Lisa Meyer: "Hostile Classrooms – The state of hate." In: ''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * ''The Advocate'' (LGBT magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States *''The Harvard Advocate'', a literary magazin ...

'', No. 33, April 13, 1999. Pages 33–35. The target group of this school was gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students, as well as those questioning their sexuality and educational dropouts, but being a high school run by the state, it was also open for straight students. The mission statement was ''A safe place for youth to receive their education.'' The school was supervised by Ruben Zacarias, in that time period LAUSD's superintendent of schools in charge, Elizabeth Newman, the options administrator, and Sunshine S. Sepulveda, an educational advisor to LAUSD. Founder and principal of the school was Jerry B. Battey, an English teacher, from 1992 to 2004. In 1996, the school had two campuses, one in Hollywood and a branch located in the South Bay area of Los Angeles. In 1999, eleven teachers worked at EAGLES. In the same year, there were also one full-time and four part-time volunteer school counselors. The school was closed in the summer of 2004 due to financial shortages by the LAUSD. Although there was a tax-exempt organization called "Friends of EAGLES Center – Los Angeles, Inc." for raising money and commodity contributions, it was impossible to keep the school alive based only on donations.

Student body and activities

EAGLES Center started in 1992 with twelve students. Later in 1992, 35 students were enrolled at EAGLES. EAGLES Center initiated the first prom for LGBT students for the school, open for students from other high schools in the school district. It was advertised in the media as an open invitation for the first prom of its kind in the nation. On May 20, 1994, it took place in the Los Angeles Hilton hotel. A group of protesters can be seen in the documentary film that was made about it. At the first graduation ceremony held in Plummer Park in West Hollywood in 1994, six seniors received their diplomas.

Curriculum and external support

The curriculum followed the Carnegie Unit and Student Hour system with 45-minute units in core

subject Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to: Philosophy *''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing **Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...

s like English, science, social studies, and

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

plus German and Spanish as second languages. A long-term collaboration between EAGLES and the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) patronized several graduates to develop their talents like Marc Imme to become an actor, later known for the role of "Luke" in ''Ryan's Life'' (2004), and Miguel Lopez, the playwright of ''Mariposas'' (2001), a play for children.Norma Bowles, Mark E. Rosenthal: ''Cootie Shots: Theatrical Inoculations Against Bigotry for Kids, Parents, and Teachers.''Plays, Poems & Songs. Pages 153, 154, 156. Theatre Communications Group, 2001. . In statewide comparisons, the students of EAGLE reached in the Junior to

Senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

ratings of 1998 (known as the "Stanford 9 Assessment tests") six stars.

Criticism

In 2001, some students graduated from EAGLES Academy without fulfilling all requirements.'Graduates' Honored at a Dubious Exercise
in the Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2001, by Duke Helfand. Retrieved June 8, 2018.

Media

* EAGLES Center: ''Live to Tell: The First Gay and Lesbian Prom in America'', a film by Charley Lang, VHS videocassette, color, 24 minutes,

The Cinema Guild The Cinema Guild Inc. is a film distribution company. It was established by Philip and Mary-Ann Hobel, producers known for their work in documentaries and features, including the film ''Tender Mercies''. Since 1968, the Cinema Guild has been a ...

, New York City, 1995.''School Library Journal'', SLJ, Volume 42, Issues 1–6, page 150, R.R. Bowker Company, Xerox Company, 1996.Entry
in the catalog of the library of the University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved June 10, 2018.

References