Conservative school board president recalled in Temecula, California; State Legislature considers anti-parental rights bill.
By Eileen Griffin
Temecula Valley Unified School District board President Joseph Komrosky was successfully recalled by voters in California.
In a win for Gov. Gavin Newsom, the school board president who fought against the radical, Left-wing curricula championed by Newsom has been silenced, Breitbart reports.
Out of 10,000 ballots cast, 51.09 percent voted to remove Komrosky, while 48.91 percent voted to retain him.
Komrosky, a Christian conservative, was elected in November of 2022 as part of the parental activist movement. Parents objected to the radical teaching and curricula including critical race theory (CRT), ethnic studies, and a focus on LGBTQ ideology.
The Temecula school board refused to adopt the state-mandated social studies curriculum in 2023, as Heartland Daily News reported at the time. The curriculum included sexual content in books designed for first through fifth grades. Newsom threatened to fine the district $1.5 million to coerce compliance and bring the school board into subservience.
In addition to rejecting state mandated curriculum, the Temecula school district created a parent’s bill of rights, placing authority with the parents, and not the state.
Parental rights bills have been launched by numerous school boards throughout the state of California, largely in response to unpopular education policies in the state.
These parents’ rights bills offended the Leftists in Sacramento who were expecting total compliance with their radical education policies.
Now, the process has begun to crush the parental bill of rights, The Washington Times reports.
Assemblyman Christopher Ward (D-San Diego) introduced AB 1955 with the support of the California Teacher’s Association and the LGBTQ lobby, the California Policy Center (CPC) reports.
“Just when you think California legislators can’t thumb their noses at parents any harder, Assemblyman Christopher Ward (D-San Diego) introduced a bill this week that aims to strip control from local school boards,” write the education policy staff at the CPC.
The bill, AB 1955, will prohibit teachers, or anyone in the education community, from disclosing information to a parent about their child’s declaration of a transgender status.
“This bill would prohibit school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools, and a member of the governing board or body of those educational entities, from enacting or enforcing any policy, rule, or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by law, as provided,” the bill states.
AB 1955 will establish a wall between a parent and a child, the California Family Council writes on its website. Parents will be left out of significant issues regarding their own child such as their use of different pronouns. The family will not be informed if a student changes pronoun usage within the school.
“AB 1955 very simply undermines the foundational role that parents and the crucial partnership between parents and educators,” state Sen. Kelly Seyarto (R) said at a press conference.
“This is a parent’s rights issue. When you are talking about a child announcing that they are gay that is one thing but when they want to medically alter who they are that is a medical procedure that parents have to be involved in.”
“In the nearly 12 years that I have been in the state assembly I have never seen an effort to damage the relationship between children and their parents like this one, especially at a time when children need their parents love and understanding the most,” state Assembly Member Jim Patterson said at the same event.
“It’s going to trap these children behind a government-imposed wall that shuts them off from the love and care that their parents can provide,” said Patterson. “This bill isn’t just bad policy or bad governance, this bill is evil.”
The recall efforts and AB 1955 send a clear message to school board members and parents. The state will make decisions regarding the education of children in California.
“All of these people listed as co-authors of AB 1955 are Democrats who were put into office by teachers unions,” write Rebecca Friedrichs and Roger Ruvolo for The Washington Times. “And the union-controlled supermajority of Democrats dominating the California Legislature are also enthusiastically on board.”
“Devoted parents are a threat,” Friedrichs and Ruvolo write. “Shouldn’t we be leery of legislators seeking to intrude on the sexuality of children without the messy necessity of parents? Shouldn’t we see legislators who seek to suspend the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech as dangerous usurpers of liberty?”
“Silencing the natural protectors of children is another thing you do when you want to get away with something harmful and immoral.”
Both houses of the California State Legislature have passed AB 1955. The State Senate amended the Assembly-passed bill, and the lower house is considering amendments at the time of this writing. A final version is expected to pass the Legislature. Newsom has not announced whether he will sign or veto the bill.
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