TEMECULA, CA — California state leaders are now eyeing the Temecula Valley Unified School District over its efforts to ban textbooks that deal with “morally objectionable material.”
During the May 16 TVUSD governing board meeting, Trustees Joseph Komrosky, Jennifer Wiersma and Danny Gonzalez voted to reject a proposed curriculum and textbooks for the district’s K-5 social sciences program. The vote came despite 47 of the district’s educators recommending the textbooks after piloting the curriculum in classrooms and asking for input from parents of the nearly 1,300 students in the test program.
There was little parent feedback and almost no criticism of the new curriculum, according to a district report.
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The TVUSD — long known as a top-performing district in Riverside County — now finds itself in a position of possible legal jeopardy and, conceivably, without enough textbooks for K-5 social sciences classes in the upcoming school year.
Gonzalez and Wiersma said the nearly year-long process for adopting the textbooks was flawed because, they argued, the community outside of TVUSD wasn’t given an opportunity to weigh in. Also, Gonzalez argued, there wasn’t enough effort made to get TVUSD parents to engage.
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However, just minutes before the rejection vote, the board unanimously approved — without comment or objections — textbooks for the district’s high school science program.
Instead, there was a heavy focus on “morally objectionable material” — namely California gay rights leader Harvey Milk — linked to the K-5 materials.
While none of the proposed textbooks referenced Milk, teachers in the higher elementary grades would have the option of sourcing supplemental material on the slain politician if they wanted to offer students the ability to dig into the history of gay rights in the United States, according to district officials who spoke at the meeting.
That seemed to be a non-starter for Gonzalez, Komrosky and Wiersma.
Gonazelez called Milk a “known pedophile,” while Komrosky asked, “Why even mention a pedophile?”
“We can do better,” Wiersma said.
All three trustees were newly elected to the TVUSD board in November and were backed by the Inland Empire Family PAC, which works to “stop the indoctrination of our children by placing candidates on school boards who will fight for Christian and Conservative values.”
The TVUSD has now captured Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ire. On Saturday, he tweeted a link to a CBS article about the latest district vote and directly criticized Board President Komrosky.
“An offensive statement from an ignorant person. This isn’t Texas or Florida. In the Golden State, our kids have the freedom to learn. Congrats Mr. Komrosky you have our attention. Stay tuned.”
Late last year, Komrosky, along with Gonzalez and Wiersma, voted to ban any books and discussions that address critical race theory. That move was followed by student protests and community division.
A request for comment from Komrosky was not immediately returned.
The governor’s weekend tweet followed a June 1 letter he co-authored with State Attorney General Rob Bonta, and State Superintendent Tony Thurmond that was addressed to all county school superintendents, district school superintendents and charter school administrators across California.
The letter cautioned against book bans and outlined pertinent educational civil rights and corresponding legal mandates that school administrators must follow “to preserve freedom and ensure access to diverse perspectives and curricula.”
“In the first half of this school year alone, 1,477 books were banned nationally, with teachers and librarians threatened with prison time for shelving the wrong book,” according to the letter. “As state leaders elected to represent the values of all Californians, we offer our response in one shared voice: Access to books — including books that reflect the diverse experiences and perspectives of Californians, and especially, those that may challenge us to grapple with uncomfortable truths — is a profound freedom we all must protect and cultivate.”
The letter also laid out the state’s framework of how and when a book can be pulled from a curriculum and warned of legal ramifications if California law and education code are not followed.
Even more pressing is the TVUSD’s possible violation of the state’s Williams Act if it can’t provide a K-5 curriculum for its 2023-24 social sciences program. Under the act, California’s public school students must have equal access to instructional materials.
Even if the TVUSD sticks with its old K-5 social sciences curriculum — which dates back several years and was in need of updating under the state’s education code — there is a concern there wouldn’t even be enough textbooks to go around in 2023-24.
Following the May 16 vote, TVUSD Trustee Steven Schwartz delivered a “point of order.”
“I don’t want to put myself in a position of being a violator of ed code,” he said. “If the three of you want to do that, that’s your choice.”
Schwartz said he would be consulting with his personal attorney on the matter.
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