Chino Valley Unified Smeared For Supposed Book ‘Ban’

The school board of Chino Valley Unified School District has made headlines again as angry leftists take umbrage with another policy modification made by the board last week. During the board meeting on November 16, 2023, changes were made to the policy regarding appropriate instructional and school library materials. The changes aim to give parents a voice in their children’s education, but media and activists are lambasting the move calling it a “ban” on books.

The Los Angeles Blade ran a headline on the story saying, “Chino Valley Unified School District set to ban LGBTQ+ books.” Even KTLA, a somewhat more unbiased outlet, embraced the word “ban,” although they showed enough deference to put the word in quotation marks: “Chino Valley school board enacts controversial book ‘ban’ policy.”

As is typically the case when progressives exaggerate and magnify an issue, they weaponize language to do so. The word “ban” elicits thoughts of authoritarianism and dictators completely removing a book or other work of art from the eyes of all of their subjects. If a book is banned, that means a child would not be able to get ahold of it anywhere. They would not be allowed to find the same book at a local public library or to purchase it from a bookstore or online vendor—that is if their parents were to allow it. Thankfully, the Chino Valley Unified school board does not have that kind of authority. Therefore, they do not have the power to “ban” any book.

The move to demonize and make the more conservative school board look Mao-adjacent is flat out propaganda. The board did not start unilaterally removing books from school libraries either. The changes implemented to the policy simply made it easier for parents to object to certain materials their children have access to within the walls of the schools. The revised policy sets out a very reasonable and multistep procedure for the removal of objectionable material.

First, the parent must provide a detailed written complaint to the principal of the school. The principal then has the ability to accept or reject the complaint while also having a meeting with the complainant discussing the objection. If the two parties cannot come to an agreement, then another complaint is sent to the school board along with a written response from the principal giving the opposing viewpoint. Finally the board makes an informed decision on whether to remove the offending material. Moreover, just for good measure, the new policy guidelines also strips some of the board’s power to remove materials outright for political reasons. It reads, “The board of education shall not remove books because they disagree with the author.”

The progressive leftists blowing the policy additions out of proportion are claiming the decision was made in order to silence or “ban” LGBT books, as was laid out in the Los Angeles Blade headline reported previously. That same article mentions California Assembly Bill 1078, which was passed just a few months ago. AB 1078 lays a groundwork for the types of materials that a school and school library must have.

“Under California law, California schools must create an equitable learning environment where all pupils, including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) pupils and Black, Indigenous, and other pupils of color feel welcome, including through honest discussions of racism, the history of slavery in our society and in California, and the diversity of gender and sexual orientation that reflects the lived reality of those pupils,” the bill reads.

The bill further states, “Restricting access to classroom and library materials because they feature LGBTQ people or were written by LGBTQ authors discriminates against LGBTQ people and constitutes censorship in violation of California law and policy. Similarly, efforts to categorically exclude topics related to race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristics, or of present or historical discrimination based on protected characteristics, from school library collections, curricula, or classroom discussions constitute censorship that violates California law and policy.”

Clearly the LGBT activists at the Los Angeles Blade are blowing yet another dog whistle for homophobia and transphobia. The Chino Valley Unified school board’s revised policy does not mention gender or sexual orientation at all. It does, however, mention material that includes “sexually obscene content.” Thankfully, AB 1078 does not stipulate that sexually obscene content must be provided to students; therefore, the new policy is not in violation of the statute. Any questioned material that goes through the new policy’s procedure will undoubtedly be evaluated with regard to California law.

It seems that any move to give parents more rights and oversight in their children’s education is under a microscope. LGBT activists will smear and spin any of these new parental rights measures as homophobic and transphobic in hopes of keeping control over the education system. If activists and progressive politicians keep control of the content and propaganda being taught by silencing parents, they have a greater chance of influencing the future of the state and the country. The effects of this long-standing control are already apparent as some of the most “educated” in the country have recently revealed themselves to be terrorist apologists by taking a pro-Hamas stance in the current Israeli conflict. Thankfully some of the newly conservative California school boards, like Chino Valley Unified, are taking small steps in hopes of reversing the damage that has been done.