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

public high school A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...

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

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. 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 nouns with female homosexu ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

, and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

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 State school, public school district in Los Angeles County, California, United States of America. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the List ...

(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 A press release (also known as a media release) is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing new information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public releas ...

"EAGLES Center expands services – sets sights on South Bay" of March 23, 1996. Retrieved June 9, 2018. EAGLES is an

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

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 (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States * ''The Harvard Advocate' ...

'', 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 A branch, also called a ramus in botany, is a stem that grows off from another stem, or when structures like veins in leaves are divided into smaller veins. History and etymology In Old English, there are numerous words for branch, includ ...

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 Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency ...

school counselors. The school was closed in the summer of 2004 due to financial shortages by the LAUSD. Although there was a

tax-exempt Tax exemption is the reduction or removal of a liability to make a compulsory payment that would otherwise be imposed by a ruling power upon persons, property, income, or transactions. Tax-exempt status may provide complete relief from taxes, redu ...

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

donation A donation is a gift for Charity (practice), charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, Service (economics), services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donati ...

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 A promenade dance or prom is a formal dance party for graduating high school students at the end of the school year. Students participating in the prom will typically vote for a ''prom king'' and ''prom queen''. Other students may be honored ...

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 West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. History Most historical writings about West Hollywood be ...

in 1994, six seniors received their

diplomas A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offi ...

Curriculum and external support

The curriculum followed the

Carnegie Unit and Student Hour The Carnegie Unit and the Student Hour are strictly time-based references for measuring educational attainment used by American universities and colleges; the Carnegie Unit assesses secondary school attainment, and the Student Hour, derived from th ...

system with 45-minute units in core subjects like English, science,

social studies In many countries' curricula, social studies is the combined study of humanities, the arts, and social sciences, mainly including history, economics, and civics. The term was coined by American educators around the turn of the twentieth century as ...

, and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

plus German and Spanish as second languages. A long-term collaboration between EAGLES and the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

(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 The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

, 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 VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

videocassette Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocasset ...

, color, 24 minutes,

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

, New York City, 1995.''School Library Journal'', SLJ, Volume 42, Issues 1–6, page 150, R.R. Bowker Company,

Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...

Company, 1996.Entry
in the catalog of the library of the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Retrieved June 10, 2018.

References