The Great Language Change of DEI Tenants: A DSUSD Case Study

“They’re going to change the language.” 

We have all heard the refrain, or one similar to it, when discussing DEI and gender ideology in American schools. We know leftists have a penchant for changing definitions of words when the facts become uncomfortable, and they need to hide.

It should come as no surprise then, when you encounter a vocabulary shift without an accompanying paradigm shift in real time. The Marxist lessons stay the same, but the words to describe it to outsiders, those ignorant rubes who just get riled up over keywords, change. Yes, they think the world outside of their bubble is that stupid.

Desert Sands Unified School District (DSUSD) in the California’s Coachella Valley has graced us with the unique opportunity to observe how DEI language changes in real-time. 

Are you ready? Here we go—be careful about eating and drinking while reading, as your screen could end up a mess.

Background

Our story begins with the DSUSD May 6, 2025, regular board meeting agenda. DSUSD Community Watch (DSCW) found a proposed Independent Contractor Agreement with one Trudy Arriaga, Ed.D., which, upon analysis, proved to be problematic in that it violates several Presidential Executive Orders. 

The rationale for the contract, which appears on the agenda, went like this:

“The Personnel Services Division requests to enter into an Independent Contractor Agreement with Trudy Arriaga, Ed.D., to provide workshop presentations to Classified staff members. This interactive workshop presentation will include curriculum on Opening Doors: An Implementation Template for Cultural Proficiency.

Dr. Arriaga is an education consultant and author with expertise in leadership development, gender equity, and experience of aligning the actions of the organization with their stated values and principles in an effort to build a culturally proficient and inclusive organization for each and every person.”

Arriaga had a 40-year career in education, including Superintendent of Ventura School District, before retiring in 2015. After which she moved on to Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, CA, first as the Dean of Equity and Outreach, and then the Director, of the Graduate School of Education. 

Since the contracted training is based upon a book that Arriaga co-authored with one Randall B. Lindsey, it seems only proper to mention that Lindsey’s (emphasis added) “area of study is the behavior of white people in multicultural settings.”  Lindsey is a Professor Emeritus at Cal State LA but once was the Chair of the Education Department at the University of Redlands… because of course.

DSCW wrote to the DSUSD board before the meeting, urging the board to reject the contract on the aforementioned grounds, and inquired as to why there was no “Scope of Services” attached to the contract. The DSUSD replied and pointed out that the contract read “…the following services [OR] the services as described in Exhibit A- Scope of Services.”  Thus, because of the “OR,” the district maintained that the one sentence description in the contract was sufficient for decision making and public transparency. The sentence description was: “Dr. Trudy Arriaga will provide 2 in-person trainings for Classified Clerical personnel and 2 full day for all support professionals.”

DSUSD ignored the concerns about DEI and Executive Orders.

The DSCW pushed for more details, citing a similar contract (same title, same person) with Needles Unified School District. The DSCW did not point out that the Needles contract was chock full of equity, social justice, access, diversity, and inclusion—all the tenants of DEI wrapped in the cloak of “Cultural Proficiency.”  We left the DSUSD to discern that for themselves, which apparently, they did.

In fact, the DSUSD had previously hired Arriaga “to deliver a professional development day on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Proficiency” and thus is well aware of Arriaga’s focus on gender, equity, and all things DEI.

The Great Shift

That should about catch us all up on the situation. Now let’s get to the DSUSD answer for a request for more transparency. 

The DSUSD replied to the request for more information after a day or so with a Word document “Training Summary” of the work Arriaga would perform. 

Gone are any mentions of equity or inclusion or diversity or social justice or even Cultural Proficiency—Arriaga’s specialty and what her entire book is about!

Instead, we are greeted with a brand new “initiative” and new language, as if we are to forget Arriaga’s experience and expertise in everything DEI; forget the fact that her co-author, a higher-ed academic specialty, which he is paid by universities to pass on, is in observing white people when they are not around all white people. 

It is beyond parody, but I digress. Let’s look at some comparisons between what we know about Arriaga’s proffered training courses and the new description provided by the DSUSD.

Change 1

The first change is the title of the training. Recall that the agenda of the board meeting described the training as a “workshop” that “include[ed] curriculum on Opening Doors: An Implementation Template for Cultural Proficiency.”  The new title is “Opening Doors to Access and Opportunity: The Role of the Support Professional.”

See what they did there? Also consider, that while Arriaga does not seem to offer any training with that exact title, her trainings approach the “whole school/district” as the current indoctrinators in government schools approach the “whole child,” or even the whole family. Take a look at Corwin for example, which Arriaga seems to offer her services through. In addition read through a couple of sample chapters of “Opening Doors…” and it will be readily apparent that the change was one of omission.

Change 2

Anyhow, the second change is also one of omission, done while describing Arriaga’s expertise. The district, while citing Arriaga’s experience, said that she was “Associate Dean of Access and Outreach at California Lutheran University.” Do a search for Trudy Arriaga, Grok her, and you’ll find every single page will describe Arriaga’s position as “Dean of Equity and Outreach in the Graduate School of Education at Cal Lutheran University.”  Even the faculty page at Cal Lutheran will tell you so.

Out with equity, in with access. 

Although if you are familiar with the entire DEI cult, which [they] always assume you are not, you know about DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access). Some organizations also use “B” for Belonging.

The question that must be asked is, was that change from equity to access done deliberately to conceal the word equity? 

Change 3

The program, according to the DSUSD, “is designed to elevate the critical contributions of classified staff in promoting fairness, access, and student success.” In addition, the workshop “acknowledges” that all staff are parts of the whole. And, are “essential partners in creating school environments where every student is valued, supported, and provided with meaningful opportunities to succeed.”  Access, fairness, valued, supported, opportunities, and success. Got it. 

Now, if we compare that to the workshop “Opening Doors to Access and Opportunity” given by Arriaga to Needles USD in 2023, we see from insert that the workshop “delivers a compelling account on how educators can create and expand cultures of social justice and equity by dismantling and crafting new practices on behalf of the students they serve.”

See what they did there…again?

Change 3

The next obvious change is seen by comparing the section “Introducing the Framework of Engagement-Focused Practice,” from the DSUSD with the “Training Themes” from Needles USD.

From DSUSD:

The training introduces classified staff to powerful professional tools, including: 

• Guiding Principles as Core Values
• Essential Elements of Competence 
• The Continuum of Engagement
• Strategies for Overcoming Barriers

These frameworks will be adapted to the realities of each classified role, helping employees understand how to recognize and address institutional barriers, improve interactions with students and families, and align their actions with the district’s fairness and access goals.

From Needles:

Use of the Four Tools of Cultural Proficiency: 

• Embracing the Guiding Principles of Cultural Proficiency as core values in esteeming culture as central to professional and institutional practice. 
• Recognizing, identifying and overcoming personal and professional barriers to Cultural Proficiencу. 
• Discerning unhealthy values, behaviors, policies and practices in a way that allows educators and their schools to use healthy values, behaviors, policies and practices that embrace student cultures as assets. 
• Learning and using the Essential Elements of Cultural Proficiency as standards that guide educators in their primary functions of leadership, counseling, student interactions, parent/guardian interactions, classroom instruction, on-going curriculum development, and approaches to assessment and accountability.

Ommission. Again. The DSUSD “forgot” to mention that the “Guiding Principles,” “Core Values,” and “Essential Elements” that they mention in their framework are all of “Cultural Proficiency.”

In addition, note that what the DSUSD really means by the “Continuum of Engagement” is the “Learning and using the Essential Elements of Cultural Proficiency as standards that guide…” bullet point from Needles.

Lastly, the DSUSD does not mention what the “institutional barriers” that are to be “overcome.” Needles USD, however, does tell us that is all about discerning “unhealthy values, behaviors, policies and practices” in order to change them.

Our Turn

If you read both documents and take a 40,000 ft. view…. Well, let’s put it this way, the DSUSD response seems disingenuous at best and an intentional avoidance of public scrutiny at worst.

One can’t help but wonder if this document was simply made up out of thin air to remove all references to what the author (whichever administrator that proves to be) perceives as trigger words—the absence of which explains away everything and settles the ignorant plebes down. Just change the language and everything will be fine. It is an attitude that is prevalent in education at all levels.

In any case, it does not matter in the near term, because, quite simply, it isn’t 2022 anymore. There is a new sheriff in Town, by the name of President Donald J. Trump, who has made it clear through numerous Executive Order and actions by the Department of Education (DOE) that DEI must DIE. There is no longer a need to argue with the school districts in the hope that they see reason.

There isn’t even a need or requirement to notify school districts before filing a complaint with the DOE, but you never know what you’ll find if you ask them to explain themselves. 

Case in point and also lets us end on a touch of humor, sardonic though it may be. In the DSUSD document under “Leadership development,” the district states, and this emphasis is all theirs: “Selected representatives will be prepared to serve as Fairness and Access Stewards, assisting in the facilitation of two district-wide, full-day interactive sessions for all classified staff. These Fairness and Access Stewards will help guide small group discussions, activities, and practical exercises designed to ensure the district’s vision for engagement and fairness is understood and implemented across all sites.”

Of course, California Public Records Act requests would probably answer all questions, but the DSUSD has shown it is very adept at stringing those requests out for months on end—almost a year in one case!  Perhaps the DOE, or even the Riverside County DA (if there is a Brown Act violation) could sort it out quicker.

In any case, DSUSD does not need Antifa-type Occupy Democrats fan-girls to be training ANYONE!