A school board in southern California angered many on the left when it kicked out the state’s public education bureaucrat from a meeting during which it voted to preserve parental rights over the transgender agenda.
The contentious episode is the latest in a fight between some cities in California pushing back against the increasingly progressive transgender policies of the Democrat-controlled state government.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond spoke at the meeting for the Chino Valley Unified School Board in an attempt to dissuade the members from voting for a policy requiring parents be informed about their children’s gender decisions.
When Thurmond tried to speak past the allotted time, he was berated by Chino Valley Unified Board President Sonja Shaw who accused him of trying to “pervert” children and said he had threatened the board.
Videos on social media showed police officers escorting Thurmond out of the meeting.
Many in the crowd applauded while he left.
The board went on to vote in favor of the policy securing parents’ rights, 4 to 1.
“We think he’s a danger to our students,” said Shaw to KTVU-TV, “he continues to push things that pervert children and he continues to push out parents and bring in policies to create division between families.”
Thurmond strongly objected to the action of the board on his official social media account.
“I don’t mind being thrown out of a board meeting by extremists. I can take the heat — it’s part of the job. What I can’t accept is the mistreatment of vulnerable students whose privacy is being taken away,” he tweeted in part.
He went on to say he had sponsored a bill to force schools to include books in their curriculum with pro-LGBTQ themes.
“Let me be clear: I will always stand with California students and will use every power of my office to protect them from politicians who seek to divide our communities instead of keeping our kids safe,” he tweeted.
Shaw fired back and doubled down on her position.
“We’re going to safeguard parental rights,” she told KTLA-TV. “That is a constitutional right and we’re going to make sure that our parents at Chino Valley know they’re sending their kids here to be taught, not to be anything else.”
Officials in Temecula, another city in southern California, similarly rejected a social studies book that praised gay activist Harvey Milk after some school board members pointed out that he had admitted having a relationship with a 16-year-old male while in his thirties.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom lashed out at the board and called its members “radicalized zealots” and “extremists.”
Here’s a local news report about the incident:
California schools chief Tony Thurmond booted from Chino Valley school board meetingwww.youtube.com
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