Riverside, CA – 04/22/2024 – In an unsurprising twist in the saga of ultra-conservative school boards in southwest Riverside County, the Murrieta School Board, in a 3-2 vote held on Thursday, April 18, made the choice to defy an order to end its illegal and discriminatory practice, as defined by an April 10th California Department of Education report, of notifying a student’s parents if the student has signaled to any school district employee that they wish to be identified as a gender other than that which they were biologically assigned at birth. To be clear, this does not involve any sort of medical or surgical treatment as no school is authorized to do this. It often concerns something as benign as a change of name or nickname and pronouns and may be emotionally and psychologically meaningful to trans youth.
The Murrieta School Board seems less interested in the welfare of youth, or even the true interests of parents. Area Christian Nationalists and other right wing extremist groups are using our local school boards as so many pawns on a chess board to fight Sacramento, spending everyone’s tax dollars in a relentless pursuit of throwing a wrench in the spokes of what they see as a “woke” machine, recklessly hurting anyone and anything in their path. Everyone comes out losing in this process, both targeted trans children who are the victims and their parents, while extremists use these opportunities to stoke incendiary hatred and bigotry in their effort to oppress and erode our freedoms.
We call on Governor Gavin Newsom, Superintendent Tony Thurmond and Attorney General Rob Bonta to make good on their promise to take control of these schools who continue to defy the laws that protect our children from outside forces of hate, including these draconian forced “outing” policies. No one is above the law. If former Presidents can be held accountable, so can rogue school boards.
The Riverside County Democratic Party (RCDP) is one of 58 County Committees affiliated with the California Democratic Party (CADEM). They drive boots-on-the-ground efforts of registering voters, fundraising, electing candidates up and down the ballot, and fighting voter suppression. The RCDP is a volunteer-run organization that works to engage voters and fight for working-class values.
