A federal judge has denied a request from two grandparents of graduating Laguna Beach High seniors for a temporary restraining order to get this week’s commencement ceremony venue changed from Irvine Bowl to the school’s Guyer Field.
William Breit, 73, of Virginia Beach, Va., and Kathleen Christoff, 81, of Laguna Hills, filed a lawsuit on June 2 against the Laguna Beach Unified School District, saying that the Irvine Bowl, which is the home of the Pageant of the Masters on the Festival of Arts grounds, does not fully comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and therefore is not appropriate for the graduation.
According to their lawsuit, both Breit and Christoff need to use mobility-assisted devices and have the help of their companions.
“The graduation ceremony of the high school’s senior class is a once-in-a-lifetime milestone event,” and the Irvine Bowl has only 11 wheelchair-accessible spaces and 12 companion seats for an anticipated attendance of 800 to 1,000 people and will “effectively exclude” the two grandparents and other people with similar needs from participating in the event, their lawsuit argues.
As an example, the suit pointed out that the ADA requires wheelchair-accessible spaces be dispersed throughout a venue so that people with disabilities may choose seating in a variety of locations comparable to those available to non-disabled attendees. At the Irvine Bowl, the lawsuit argues, wheelchair-accessible spaces are clustered in only three areas of the steep hillside amphitheater, with one cluster completely segregated from the rest of the seating.
U.S. District Judge Fred Slaughter said in his June 5 decision that the plaintiffs had “not demonstrated that the Irvine Bowl is such an inadequate venue that they will be precluded from having access to the graduation ceremony.”
“Plaintiffs declare a general ‘fear’ that they will be unable to attend the ceremony,” he said. “However, defendant submits evidence that prior ceremonies, held over decades at the Irvine Bowl, did not present significant accessibility issues.”
Slaughter said relocating the entire graduation ceremony less than a week before the event appeared broader than necessary to address the plaintiffs’ concerns.
“The district remains committed to ensuring that all students, families, and guests can participate in the graduation ceremony,” school officials said in a press release announcing the judge’s decision.
“Prior to the event, the district distributed a survey to graduating families to identify accessibility needs and seating accommodations, and incorporated those requests into planning for the ceremony,” officials said. “Laguna Beach High School received 265 survey responses, including 83 requests for accommodations, which the district considered in developing seating assignments for the Irvine Bowl.”
The high school’s graduation ceremonies have been held previously at the Irvine Bowl. The ceremony was moved to Guyer Field, the high school’s athletic field, amid the pandemic to allow for more spacing.
For the last five years, graduation was held at the high school field, but an effort led by the parent of a graduating senior this year sparked a conversation about changing the venue back to the Irvine Bowl. In early February, she presented her suggestion during a school board meeting and said the change to the Irvine Bowl would be less expensive than Guyer Field and, according to a survey she conducted, was favored by a majority of respondents.
The presentation raised concerns among parents and students who wanted the ceremony to remain at Guyer Field. They, in turn, ran their own Change.org petition, which, over a two-week period, collected signatures indicating a lean toward Guyer Field.
“Parents liked that the kids were facing the audience rather than having their backs turned,” said Lauren Carter, who helped author the petition. “They liked the view of the sun setting over the ocean, people got more tickets, and the kids liked graduating on their campus.”
On Feb. 26, the school board voted 3-2 to move the graduation to the Irvine Bowl.
With the judge’s ruling just days before the June 11 graduation, plans to keep it at the Irvine Bowl will go on as scheduled, said Anakaren Ureno, spokesperson for the district.