The Rev. James P. Breeden, co-chairman of the Boston School Stay-out Committee, said last night at the B.U. Law Forum that the legal controversy raised by Atty Gen. Edward W. Brooke's statement - that the stayout would be "unlawful" - had obscured the basic issue of defects school segregation.

"There seems to be a tendency to make the law an idol," he said. "The issue of legality is not to be lightly pushed aside, but neither is the issue of morality. It is necessary to break the law in order to achieve justice; this is the tradition of the development of the laws."

Answering a question on transportation of students to schools outside their own neighborhoods, Breeden said that the NAACP had never proposed "bussing" for Boston. By objecting loudly to such a plan, he added, the School Committee created the impression that it was part of the NAACP program.

Another questioner suggested that Breeden's complaint was really with the housing situation. Breeden answered that "the housing situation is at least in part a result of people growing up and going to do facts segregated schools."

Someone else wondered whether integration would really improve Negro education. Breeden thought both Negroes and whites would benefit: "There is more to education than the factual material learned or the skills acquired, and that 'more' has to do with being involved in the main stream of society."

One man asked whether any thought was being given to the rights of those who thought integration a bad thing per se. Breeden smiled and said he thought "their rights are being given adequate consideration under the present political setup."