SoCal High School Principal Orders Hold on LGBTQ+ Centered Lessons

A leaked staff-wide email from a Desert Sands Unified School District (DSUSD) High School Principal seems like a stunning admission that LGBTQ+ centered lessons are being administered at his school and an assurance that the district’s lawyers would find a workaround. 

Gregg O’Mara, principal of La Quinta High School, warned staff after the first day of school (August 21) that the district had “received parent letters referencing this case [Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025)] and seeking to opt out their students from specific curriculum, surveys, and third-party mental health services.”

Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025) is the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that found that parents have the First Amendment right to prevent their children from being exposed to instruction involving LGBTQ+ themed storybooks.

According to the organization Defending Education—which provides opt-out form letters for parents to send to districts and teachers–the Mahmoud decision notes “…the Supreme Court applied its 1972 decision, Wisconsin v. Yoder, which held that parents have a right “to direct the religious upbringing of their children” and that this right can be infringed by laws that pose “a very real threat of undermining” the religious beliefs and practices that parents wish to instill in their children.”

Thus, it is widely held, as common sense would dictate, that the decision applies to any and all LGBTQ+ themed lessons that might violate religious beliefs, not just storybooks.

The staff letter went on to instruct staff to “postpone any instruction on potentially controversial topics connected to this case.”  The goal of the DSUSD, according to the email, is to “review and clarify our procedures so we can both uphold any new protections from this court decision and, at the same time, continue to promote inclusive and safe spaces for all of our students.”

DSUSD History

In the past, the DSUSD has denied, even faced with irrefutable evidence, that wide-spread CRT/DEI (which includes LGBTQ+ ideology) was being taught in their schools. Indeed, the DSUSD even provided training for all principals on how to teach LGBTQ+ themed storybooks.

Consequently, it is not known how prevalent lessons on “controversial topics” are in the DSUSD. Nor is it known if the email to La Quinta High School staff was isolated, or if the district instructed all school principals to send a similar warning.

However, if all DSUSD principals sent out a similar staff memo, that would seem to indicate that the district fears (or knows) that those topics are often taught in the district’s classrooms.

In addition, the DSUSD Board of Trustees was notified at their June 10, 2025, board meeting that the public was aware of the district’s policy of Gender Support Plans, apparently at times without parents’ knowledge. Public records showed that the district had 192 Gender Support Plans between 2016-2022. The DSUSD was encouraged at that time to develop a policy so that parents could protect their children from unwanted school district activism.

At that same June meeting, DSUSD Board Trustees, and one district employee during the public comment period, strongly affirmed their support for LGBTQ+ students. 

Those that parrot that phrase, “…we support our LGBTQ+ community…” or some variation thereof, are indeed just parroting. No one ever explains exactly what they mean by “support” because doing so would require the admission that support equates to an interest in, and the shaping of, children’s sex lives.

The adults in the DSUSD do not seem to grasp how creepy their profound interest in the gay, bisexual, and trans sex-lives of other people’s children is to most parents. For the adults that cannot control that interest-nay if there is even an interest at all, perhaps it is time to consider a different profession.

In any case, DSUSD stakeholders should be aware that the DSUSD has a predilection for changing language to get around pestering issues such as DEI and trans ideologies. Take for instance, the way the district removed all language that they believed would connect them to DEI in a training summary about… DEI based training. The district even went so far as to change the official job title of their hired contractor from “Dean of Equity…” to “Dean of Access.”  

The saddest aspect of all of this, by far, is the fact that the school districts don’t seem to realize how they are the loaders—the agents that load  poor confused kids on a stock-train directly to Big Pharma and medical centers who will profit immensely from so-called “affirming care” (aka, mutilation and sterilization).

What Can Be Done

Some school districts, such as Poway Unified School District—provided by PSUSD Community Watch–have already developed opt-out forms that must be filed annually.

Defending Education, Mahmoud v. Taylor should put every school district in America on notice: “Notify parents of controversial material, and provide them the opportunity to opt their children out – especially if you provide opt-outs for other curriculum or other reasons, but exclude opt-outs for religious objections.”

The form provided by Defending Education suggests that parents demand to be notified before any lessons, but also specifically ask of your district:

•  “…how and when you intend to be compliant with it [Mahmoud v. Taylor] and plan to alert parents about related changes to the district’s gender identity policies.
• “…[how do you] plan to notify us about any upcoming LGBTQ+ lessons, including those on gender identity, before they are taught to our children in their public schools”?
• “…what discipline will be applied if a teacher/principal/school does not honor this opt out request”?

Hopefully, the DSUSD will create a clear policy, as they have been asked to do for years, detailing exactly how parents can opt-out of inappropriate lessons. The DSUSD should also explain how parents can determine if activists are secretly transitioning their children, and what the discipline policy will be for ignoring/”getting around” those policies would be.

Keep it up parents!  You are being heard and they are afraid!