Temecula Valley Unified School District Board. (Photo: https://www.tvusd.k12.ca)
School Trustee Responds to Assemblyman Corey Jackson’s Anti-Parent Legislative Agenda
AB 1078 is one bill of many designed to limit the authority and autonomy of school boards
By Jen Wiersma, July 13, 2023 2:30 am
Standing up for parental rights over our children’s education is more than a campaign slogan; it is essential. As parents are taking action to regain control of their children’s education, we are seeing disinformation campaigns launched to upend their efforts. As a newly seated Temecula Valley Unified School District (TVUSD) board member, I’m compelled to address the inaccuracies perpetuated by Assemblyman Corey Jackson, author of Assembly Bill 1078 and the co-sponsor of the bill, Tony Thurmond, California Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Since the November 2022 general election, where two colleagues and I won seats on the TVUSD board, we have been in the crosshairs of those who are losing control over the state’s educational system. There are several bills working their way through the legislature meant to curtail school boards’ power; AB 1078 is chief among them.
Superintendent Thurmond recently implied that the TVUSD school board has engaged in:
- Threatening, bullying and mistreating students throughout the district;
- Banning books specifically designed to target LGBTQ+ and persons of color;
- Wielding local control to avoid inclusive education.
Yet, none of this is true. I have nothing but love, compassion, and concern for the families of our district who deserve the very best educational resources. As such, local school boards are uniquely positioned to engage with and obtain important insights about the educational experience of our communities. The law requires all students to have equal access to education, free of pervasive vulgarity, obscenity, pornography, and sexual harassment, which is not protected speech under the First Amendment. Recently, the play “Angels in America,” was assigned to a group of students in a TVUSD drama class. It included over 100 “F—words,” sexual violence and descriptions of explicit sex and drug use. (See highlighted pages 60, 61, and 63 below)
During Superintendent Thurmond’s June visit, he met with school activists, but neglected to speak with a family whose daughter was traumatized by this sordid material aimed at sexualizing our students. After alerting her parents, who testified at a TVUSD board meeting, this student suffered mistreatment and subsequent, retaliatory abuse on campus. She should have been Thurmond’s primary concern. State leaders, schools, teachers, and local board members should be making unbiased, ethical decisions in the classroom and designing policy to support and protect all stakeholders as per California Education Code, section 233.5:
“Each teacher shall endeavor to impress upon the minds of the pupils the principles of morality, truth, justice, patriotism, and a true comprehension of the rights, duties, and dignity of American citizenship, and the meaning of equality and human dignity, including the promotion of harmonious relations, …to teach them to avoid idleness, profanity, and falsehood… and foster an environment… free from discriminatory attitudes, practices, events, or activities.”
While evaluating our recent K-5 social studies pilot, my colleague and I noted the lack of parental and citizen involvement required by the Education Code section 51100, “Specifically, involving parents and guardians of pupils in the education process is fundamental to a healthy system of public education.” We initially paused the decision to adopt the curriculum because the district bypassed the requirement to “promote the involvement of parents and the other members of the community in the selection of instructional materials.” Sec. 60002. The curriculum committee was comprised of 47 teachers and zero parents.
Our primary focus was to seek a robust, collaboratively chosen history curriculum, rich in civics and geography. During this process we were given cause for concern upon discovery of Harvey Milk’s biography in the proposed supplemental material for 4th grade. We learned this controversial historical figure was an adult who engaged in an intimate, long-term sexual relationship with a minor. This was reported by Randy Shilts, an award-winning gay reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, who covered Harvey’s activism and political career.
After five months, we have finally received full access to the teacher’s edition to finish a comprehensive review of the curriculum. The board has both the right and responsibility to exercise authority and discretion when adopting materials that will be in circulation in the district for 7-10 years. This is how every district in the state curates books. It is not ”book banning” as Jackson’s bill lazily asserts. We are working diligently to provide the best educationally suitable materials for our community in our elementary school classrooms while adhering to Fair Act guidelines in the K-12 setting.
This school board was elected to protect and oversee the education of every student regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. I specifically voted to ban racism and supported a resolution disallowing Critical Race Theory to prevent students from being judged by the color of their skin instead of the content of their character. TVUSD is committed to education which learns from past injustices, racisms, and discrimination and rejects current discrimination threatening to undermine our shared humanity.
In a recent Supreme Court decision striking down racial discrimination in college admissions, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, “The words of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are not like mood rings; they do not change their message from one moment to the next.”
AB 1078 is one bill of many designed to limit the authority and autonomy of school boards. Trustees are elected by constituents in their community as fiduciaries and are bound by law to make the best decisions in educating and protecting kids while upholding parent’s rights. If AB 1078 were to become law, it would use bullying techniques to threaten trustees who make good, but unpopular decisions, for their schools; this is how a democratic republic works. The bill would also levy fines, dox school board members, and seek to remove local control over curriculum decisions if they were to get on the state’s bad side for any arbitrary reason. This bill is flatly unconstitutional and will be challenged in court should the governor sign it. This bill proposal is also a direct attack on voters. Parents have a duty to connect with their legislative representatives and remind them that the school boards need to be protected from state control so they can provide the best content for their children’s education.
From Angels in America – WARNING: explicit sex and sexual violence
The views expressed herein are solely those of Ms. Wiersma and are not made or given on behalf of the TVUSD Board as a whole.
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August 18, 2022
There is lots of misinformation here. That’s shocking, but not from this particular board member. I will just address one of the most egregious lies– that parental involvement was not sought by the District in approving the social studies curriculum. In addition to the 47 faculty and staff members who carefully vetted through 5 different sets of curriculum to settle on this one, it was also piloted for a year to approximately 1400 students with parents. Those parents were solicited for comments and feedback. Surveys went out district-wide to all parents. Copies of the curriculum were at every site for parental review and feedback. She’s ignoring the tremendous work done to involve parents solely because it doesn’t fit her narrative. The Harvey Milk paragraph, by the way, was in the supplemental workbook, which was not even going to be used by the District. Behind her assertions are just a whole bunch of lies, and I think this will read well into the court record when she’s hauled into court. Recall the three.
Oh stop it. If I had to go with this school board member or your account I’d pick hers every time without even looking. Asm Corey Jackson’s reputation for race-baiting and use-the-law-to-shut-’em-up legislation is already well-known and it’s not good. We already know, independently, apart from this article, that AB 1078 is an outrageous bill. We also know that there are people like yourself who want to deep-six by any means necessary effective push-back —- parental and otherwise —- to the absolutely unacceptable nonsense that is going on in our public schools, apparently organized and on the march to do as an extra-curricular activity exactly what this bill hopes to do if it should pass (God forbid). Then when your community organizing isn’t quite up to snuff you can get the State of California to do it for you, and you won’t have to lift a finger.
You are clearly detached from reality. I am an actual parent in the district. You probably are not, so my account is actually “parent involvement.” Step off and go back to your partisan whole.
My apologies for the typo.
You are a nut job. Read something other than CNN for a change, maybe you will discover what the truth is. Liberals like you make me puke.
Supposed “parents” like S. Mann, who is probably either on the payroll of the Democrat party or one of the Soros funded radical leftist organizations, are a prime example why there should be school choice and that taxpayer funding for education should follow the child instead of being handed out exclusively to public school districts that have in most cases become Marxist indoctrination camps full of groomers.
This is not a partisan issue and I did not make a partisan argument.
I would just like to make clear that this is the sort of legislation and legislator that you (as a parent) support:
“Defaming Parents and Local School Boards as Christian White Nationalists”
https://californiaglobe.com/articles/defaming-parents-and-local-school-boards-as-christian-white-nationalists/
This is not a partisan issue, and here’s a partisan article to prove it. The article even ends with the statement, “Democrats are going to jam this bill through come hell or high-water.”
The article exhibits a clear partisan bias by portraying Assemblyman Corey Jackson and the Democratic Party negatively, emphasizing alleged attacks on colleagues and support for what is described as “sexualized” and “race-based” curriculum. It criticizes Assemblyman Jackson’s bill as a power grab by Governor Newsom, presenting a negative view of their approach to education in California.
What the actual parents of Temecula students want is a school board that doesn’t play party politics. We want a board that doesn’t ban theories that aren’t even being taught because entertainers like Tucker Carlson whip them into a fury of soundbites and fear. That little stunt already cost the District in excess of a half million dollars. Get that? They banned a theory that wasn’t being taught, wasn’t going to be taught, and most people (at least those who don’t bother to listen to Faux News) would have known nothing about if these board members hadn’t wasted a half million dollars on it.
My only question is: What happened to Reading, Writing and Arithmetic???
Why do any books in any school district have to have anything to do about SEX or even the mere mention of SEX or am I mistaken that this is now consider a “Theory”??? This is why the majority of parents are pissed off. And I am a parent of school aged children.
Curious where the mention of sex is in the k-5 curriculum that was turned down? . The actual parents of TVUSD are outraged at the 3 board members fiscal irresponsibility, lack of transparency, and complete disregard for ALL the parents and students in the district. Instead we have been silenced, disregarded, insulted, and threatened by outside extremist groups that were called in by Weirsma.
Banned Critical Race Theory (CRT) with a plagiarized resolution on the first day as board members having never set foot on a campus or in a classroom, later admitting there didn’t seem to be any indication that CRT was taught in Temecula schools. This was a culture war game, played by the board, to create chaos and uncertainty amongst staff and admins. o https://edsource.org/updates/temecula-valley-unified-school-board-bans-critical-race-
theory
• Spent $15K to hire a one-term former school board member from Paso Robles to teach anti-CRT ‘training to teachers. Including substitutes and coverage costs. its estimated $50K was spent on the sham of an endeavor. Another estimated $10-15K was spent to bring in panelists and the Sheriff’s Department for a community workshop that devolved into chaos.
o https://abc7.com/temecula-valley-unified-critical-race-theory-workshop-
meeting/13010152/
• Komrosky. Gonzalez and Wiersma hired a new attorney for the district at twice the rate of existing district attorneys on retainer. They hired Attorney Brenner at $650 an hour (paid by taxpayers) and does not serve as general counsel for the district. We believe he was hired to direct government policy – and we didn’t elect him to the position. We are estimating $400K-$500K in fees are incoming this summer for his first billing cycle.
• The Board didn’t approve the newly-vetted and state approved social studies textbook for grades K-5. They are out of compliance with the Williams Act (see link below). Sufficient textbooks or instructional materials means that each pupil has standards aligned instructional materials to use in class and take home. TVUSD could be fined upwards of $1M for the violation
• https://www.cde.cagov/eo/ce/wc/williamsinstrmaterials.asp
o https://www/.foxla.com/news/temecula-teachers-protest-textbook-decision-after-board-
president.amp
• Fired Superintendent Jodi McClay despite exceptional performance evaluations. Paid $362K to buy out the remainder of her contract and reportedly violated several terms of her employment contract, exposing the district to millions of dollars in wrongful termination lawsuits. o https://www.kycrnews.org/news/2023-06-14/temecula-school-board-fires-superintendent o httos://laist.com/news/education/temecula-valley-school-board-fires-superintendent-
jodi-mcclay-as-protests-erupt-outside
• Committed to $50K for search firm to find new superintendent, $15K per new admin staff hiring.
o https://www.pressenterprise.com/2023/06/28/temecula-school-board-hires-firm-for-
50000-to-find-new-superintendent/amp/
• Spent $100K for interim superintendent
This shrill leftist rant is yet another reason why there should be school choice and that taxpayer funding for education should follow the child instead of being handed out exclusively to public school districts that have in most cases become Marxist indoctrination camps full of groomers.
The bottom line is that pornographic material of ANY kind has NO business in our schools. Imagine a kid bringing a Hustler magazine to school and sharing it in the classroom. Would these people actually be ok with it? Sadly, I think these pedophiles would be ok with it, anything to groom these vulnerable kids to their liking. Anyone who opposes these books being banned have no business being around children. It is absolutely sickening and I cant believe that it is even up for debate. What has happened to our society? We used to go out of our way to protect children, now half the country is going out of their way to abuse them. Sad, sad times. People- homeschool your kids. It is the only way to ensure they are not indoctrinated.
A big part of the problem is that people who are conservative voters – whether independent or Republican or whatever – are vastly underrepresented in the California Legislature. It’s a miracle if conservative politicians get even one bill through the Democrat controlled committees, let alone get a floor vote on a bill. As long as that goes on local elections are going to be battlegrounds, especially after parents saw what children were being taught at school during Covid. Temecula’s new school board members were elected because parents didn’t like what they saw during Covid. Elementary schools don’t need to teach sociology; they need to teach the basic skills for children to build on: reading, writing, and math with some basic science in higher grades (4/5). Everything else is just extraneous in those early years.
Well, Democrats support child sex trafficking so none of this should be surprising. It’s all part of their effort to separate children from their parents for the purpose of entrenching their power. Especially since Progs have very few if any children compared to normal people. The only way they can propagate their ideologies is to indoctrinate other people’s children which is what these “curriculums” are all about.