#Tony Thurmond

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Outside the California State Capitol last month, a fitness trainer turned school board president fired up the crowd at a parental rights rally, telling them they were all fighters in “a spiritual battle” for their kids and must answer the call from God.

Sonja Shaw, who was elected to the Chino Valley Unified School District board of education last November with an assist from a local megachurch and its Christian nationalist pastor, didn’t equivocate in naming the enemy: state Democratic officials who are challenging her right-leaning policies—and drafting laws that hinder book bans and protect teachers from harassment.

“Today we stand here and declare in his almighty name that it’s only a matter of time before we take your seats and we be a God-fearing example to the nation, how God is using California to lead the way,” Shaw crowed, adding, “We already know who has won this battle. You will be removed in Jesus’s name! You, Satan, are losing.”

Now Shaw is in the national spotlight in wake of her Chino school board passing codes that ban pride flags in classrooms and force educators to inform parents if their children identify as transgender—the first such policy to be passed in the state.

This summer, Shaw’s school board meetings, about 35 miles east of Los Angeles, became chaotic spectacles, ones that attracted the Proud Boys and other right-wing extremists and pitted them against students and parents protesting what they’re calling anti-LGBTQ practices that endanger children. When California superintendent of schools Tony Thurmond appeared at the July meeting in opposition, Shaw unceremoniously silenced him.

Weeks after state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a civil rights probe into Shaw’s “gender disclosure” policy, his office sued the school board. Bonta said the policy violates the California constitution and state law, and would cause LGBTQ+ students, “mental, emotional, psychological and potential physical harm,” according to a press release.

Other right-leaning school boards across the state have followed Chino Valley Unified’s lead. Shortly before filing suit against the Chino board, Bonta issued statements denouncing the Anderson Union High School District, Temecula Valley Unified and Murrieta Valley Unified school boards’ decisions to pursue “copycat” anti-trans policies.

“These students are currently under threat of being outed to their parents against their will, and many fear that the District’s policy will force them to make a choice: either ‘walk back’ their constitutionally and statutorily protected rights to gender identity and gender expression, or face the risk of emotional, physical, and psychological harm,” Bonta said.

To concerned observers in Chino, Shaw’s tack is not unlike what’s happening at school boards across the country, with brawls over curriculum, social emotional learning, and the banning of books that focus on race and LGBTQ issues. Extremist groups like Moms for Liberty have spawned a mainstream narrative that public schools are “indoctrinating” children with “woke” ideology and into believing they’re a different gender.

But in Chino Valley, the school board’s new direction appears to be spurred on by a man behind the curtain: Shaw’s megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs.

Indeed, three of the board’s five members belong to his church, Calvary Chapel Chino Hills.

At the Sacramento rally, Hibbs boasted of his congregation’s work in electing Shaw. Calling her a “true modern-day Deborah,” Hibbs said the soccer mom “heeded the call to run for the school board” and that “when churches get involved and get informed, people vote.”

God, Hibbs said, installed Shaw into her position.

“Get on your knees every night,” Shaw told the crowd. “All day I talk to him. People probably think I’m crazy, but I’m really just talking to God all day.” After reciting a Bible verse, she added, “I have looked demons straight in the eye and with God’s authority rebuked them back to hell where they belong.”

“You can do that too, trust me.”

Residents have long raised alarms about the school board’s religious bent. And Pastor Hibbs and members of his megachurch congregation appear to be more involved than ever in Chino’s public schools.

Last week, in an interview with right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk, Hibbs said that he brought the policy language to the school board after Republican state Assemblyman Bill Essayli’s “parental notification” legislation died without a hearing.

“He came back thinking he was defeated,” Hibbs said. “What we did is that we read his bill and we took the verbiage from that bill and then introduced it to our unified school district school board and they voted and adopted the verbiage.”

“Guess what happened?” Hibbs continued. “We found out something, Charlie, that the most powerful politics is local…”

Hibbs then turned to Bonta’s lawsuit against the board, saying, “We’re going to take that on, we’re going to make sure that this goes to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

The pastor, who hasn’t returned messages left by The Daily Beast, wasn’t shy about his fight on the school board’s behalf.

Before he signed off, Hibbs told Kirk that children are “groomed” into trans ideology in the classroom and that schools want to “castrate your children” and “mutilate them.”

Ahead of the parental notification vote in July, Hibbs also urged people to flock to the fiery board meeting. “We’re asking people to show up by the thousands,” he said in a video announcement on the church’s Facebook page. “Please make it a priority.”

Meanwhile, Calvary Chapel has boasted on social media of collecting tens of thousands of ballots for state and local candidates endorsed by Hibbs. The church’s ballot collection, a practice it’s engaged in for years, is conducted with help from Hibbs’ political organization Real Impact.

A teacher in another district—who alleges she was fired for refusing to follow her school’s gender identity protocols—heeded Hibbs’ call. “I could no longer be both a Christian and a public school teacher,” she said at the board meeting. “Then I remembered what Pastor Jack Hibbs taught me, that the word of God says… that being a coward is a sin.”

Still, Shaw claims that neither she nor the school board follow Hibbs’ orders. “Absolutely not. No one has a direct line to Pastor Jack Hibbs. Pastor Jack has never said, ‘Hey, guys, I want you to bring this policy forward.’ Never ever did he do any of that,” she told The Daily Beast. She added, however, that she couldn’t speak on Hibbs’ involvement with the board of education prior to her election.

The mother of two daughters—a freshman and junior in high school—Shaw was a Bible study leader at another church before joining Hibbs’ Calvary Chapel Chino Hills about two years ago.

Last September, Shaw told the San Bernardino Sun that she wasn’t running for election on the behalf of the 10,000-member Calvary Chapel. “They keep calling me ‘the church’s choice.’ I’ve never met Pastor Jack (Hibbs). I’ve never been brought up on stage,” she said.

One month later, however, Hibbs introduced her at the pulpit, telling his Sunday service that “she’s truly going up against the machine” before leading a prayer for her victory. Shaw bowed her head as Hibbs lifted a hand in the air and declared, “She has decided, Lord, to take on the woke-ism that is attacking our children.”

Hibbs has emboldened supporters to fight progressive education bills and prop up Christian candidates. In his sermons, he has tearfully prayed on stage for Donald Trump to win the 2020 election, said COVID-19 vaccines would lead people into accepting “the mark of the beast,” and called “transgenderism” a “sexually perverted cult” and “an anti-God, anti-Christ plan of none other than Satan himself.”

On education, he’s claimed that he and his acolytes are “trying to rescue kids from a system that is sexualizing them,” that kids “come out of school questioning their gender but they don’t even know how to do simple math” and “are being raped by the public school system.”

Hibbs has also taken aim at California’s abortion protections, describing them as “Infanticidal Death Policies,” in a document circulated to his congregation in October 2022, just before Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s re-election.

“If God does not intervene in this upcoming election through His people, which has always been his MO, and, if Newsom has his way, then this will certainly be proof that judgment has begun in California if not the United States,” the document reads. It ends by encouraging followers to return their ballots to the church.

“We should be able to stand against the school board,” Hibbs said in May. “We should be able to stand against some teacher that is molesting your child—if not physically, in their minds.”

In July, Hibbs delivered a skewed history lesson claiming that some founding fathers “inherited” slaves but actually cared for them. “Before you call them rich white guys who were slave owners,” Hibbs preached, “you need to finish the sentence: They were rich white guys who were slave owners who clothed, fed, and in many cases took very good care of their slaves while at the same time juggling two worlds…”

The megachurch has also tried to meddle in Chino Valley public school classes and teachings. Calvary Chapel members once funded textbooks for an elective course in two public high schools on the Bible as history and literature and tried to alter rules for sex education curriculum.

The church also runs a Christian “Released Time” program, where public school students can duck out of class for weekly one-hour Bible lessons held in buses outfitted with tables and chairs. This program had a table at the district’s back-to-school night, and a volunteer in a Calvary Chapel Chino Hills T-shirt handed out candy and Bible coloring books.

“This is a national movement and it’s intentional,” former school board president Christina Gagnier told The Daily Beast. “I think Chino Valley is a cautionary tale.”

District parent Glory Ciccarelli condemned Hibbs’ words on slavery at the August board meeting, urging Black parents to leave his church and “wake up and realize that what our ancestors went through is slowly getting phased out of the curriculum to the point where our kids will eventually be taught that literal slaveholders were nice guys…”

Ciccarelli told The Daily Beast that her biggest issue with Chino Valley leadership is “the apathy they have for the Black kids in the district,” and that the board needs professional development training relating to race and culture and diversity in hiring.

But she believes that Hibbs’ influence over certain board members could derail any progress in the district. In addition to Shaw, two other school board members—James Na and Andrew Cruz—are also members of Calvary Chapel.

“Cruz and Na are quite literally acolytes of Jack Hibbs at this point,” Ciccarelli said. “In my opinion, everything they say and believe as it relates to the school board is basically something they have heard from him.”

Hibbs, she added, “reminds me of Jim Jones with the way he is so easily able to control so many people at the same time.”

At the July board meeting that attracted far-right extremists like the Proud Boys, some local parents pushed back against the church’s connections to the school board.

“Madam President, board, cabinet, and staff,” quipped one father of a queer child, “I didn’t know I came to church tonight. I thought it was a board meeting.”

So many citizens had signed up to speak, waiting in a line outside in 100-degree weather, that the board cut the public comment period from three minutes to one minute per person.

Lisa Greathouse, a local mom and former school board candidate, defended teachers against claims they were “indoctrinating” and “grooming” kids. “Make no mistake,” Greathouse told the auditorium, “what this board is pushing through now is just the tip of the iceberg. They are taking their cue from their megachurch…”

Outbursts from hecklers interrupted the proceeding, which had a heavy police and security presence. Speakers from out of town and from Calvary Chapel preached about God and the Devil, facing off with parents and students who warned Shaw and her board they would have blood on their hands should the “outing” policy pass.

One moment in particular was so explosive it made headlines: Shaw excoriated Tony Thurmond, California’s state superintendent of schools, who’d asked her to reconsider the policy about notifying parents if their children identified as trans. He said it might run afoul of student privacy laws and jeopardize kids who “may not be in homes where they can be safe.”

Thurmond wasn’t finished with his remarks, but Shaw cut him off for time like she did anyone else. “Tony Thurmond,” she seethed, “I appreciate you being here, tremendously. But here’s the problem: We’re here because of people like you. You’re in Sacramento proposing things that pervert children!”

After Thurmond tried to continue, Shaw yelled into her mic that she wouldn’t let him “blackmail” or “bully” her district. Video of the scene showed Thurmond exchanging words with a group of cops before walking away.

In a statement, Thurmond told The Daily Beast that a group of concerned students contacted him about Shaw’s proposal, and he rearranged his schedule to be there. “Let’s be clear about these policies—a small group of anti-LGBTQ+ politicians like Ms. Shaw believe they have the right to dictate when and how students and their families talk about their sexual orientation or gender identity,” Thurmond said. “They are trying to turn our public school educators—who are already overworked and underpaid—into the gender police.”

“Choosing when to come out and to whom is a deeply personal decision that LGBTQ+ young people have the right to make for themselves.”

Ashlee Peters, the parent of a child in the district, watched the scene unfold. “As an educator and as a mom, you just sit there and go, ‘I can’t believe this is happening in my community,’” said Peters, who has been a public school teacher for 22 years.

Peters was also in line when far-right activist Bryce Henson, who also goes by Ben Richards, walked around trying to bait people into reacting on camera. “He would come up to you and be like, ‘I just want to talk to you, why can’t we just have a conversation about this?’” It was a sneak preview of the testimony to come.

Inside, people proselytized and spewed hatred, calling LGBTQ people “terrorists” and warning “demons are after our children.” Richards called transgender, Black Lives Matter and Juneteenth flags flying outside his San Diego school district a symbol of “systemic radical leftist indoctrination." One mother ended her speech with, “As Jason Aldean would say, ‘Well, try that in a small town.’”

When it was her turn, Peters warned that the “outing” policy would “create a hostile environment” for LGBTQIA+ students and that the board’s “reckless pursuit of personal agendas” could bring about “expensive lawsuits.”

The atmosphere was so tense that security escorted a person out who put hands on someone else, Peters said. “It seriously feels like I’m in some sort of weird dystopia,” Peters told The Daily Beast. “I don’t know how this happened because it does not feel real.”

Peters believes that what’s unfolding in Chino Valley Unified is a wake-up call to monitor school board elections. “I just didn’t think it was going to happen in my community because I live in California,” she said. “I feel relatively safe living in a blue state—that religion wasn’t going to suddenly take over my public school system, and it has.”

Even though the involvement of Hibbs and his megachuch in local public schools has been center stage in Chino Valley this year, it’s a battle that’s been brewing for at least a decade. Back in 2014, the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit on behalf of parents in Chino Valley over prayers and Bible readings at school board meetings, arguing these practices “constituted an establishment of religion in violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”

The prayers and Bible verses were being led by Calvary Chapel members James Na and Andrew Cruz, who were elected to the school board in 2008 and 2012 respectively.

According to the prayer lawsuit, Na once told spectators of a school board meeting that their “lives begin in the hospital and end in the church, and urged everyone who does not know Jesus Christ to go and find Him.” In 2013, Na sent out a letter to school district “family member[s]” that referred to Hibbs with an excerpt from “Pastor Jack’s Christmas story.”

“The community is going to rise and create a war chest to help you,” Hibbs told the board in 2016 in the midst of the legal battle, though a crowdfunding drive affiliated with the church apparently never delivered. A school board spokesperson previously said that funding was intended to bring the case to the Supreme Court.

A federal judge ultimately ruled in the parents’ favor, and the board lost its Ninth Circuit appeal, leaving the district with $282,000 in legal bills.

This apparently hasn’t stopped Cruz’s Christian commentary. In April, he went on a rant wherein he said that if he were governor, he’d mandate citizens be trained in firearms and that, “I do love one man, I really love this man, and that is Jesus Christ. It’s in my head.”

Since his election, Cruz has especially ignited parents’ ire and weathered calls to resign as a result of his offensive remarks and chemtrail conspiracy theories. In 2015, Cruz said mothers who don’t vaccinate their kids are wrongfully vilified while “illegal aliens” bring infectious disease to America. In 2018, Cruz infamously said that “it wasn’t Hitler that was bad, it was the people that follow the laws and the agenda” while discussing “parents rights.”

That year, Na and Cruz (and Hibbs) proposed that parents have the ability to opt kids out of sex-ed discussions on gender identity, sexual orientation, and discrimination—and for schools to notify parents when a transgender student uses a locker room or shower. Those measures failed.

Na is also not without controversy. Aside from his religious musings at the board, he’s also been accused of trying to recruit at least one student to Calvary Chapel.

At a June board meeting, a statement was read on behalf of Esther Kim, who was the panel’s student representative in the 2021-2022 school year. “In sophomore year, I met Mr. Na through a personal phone call where his school board role and my school were acknowledged,” Kim said. “During an unrelated conversation, he attempted to persuade me to go to his church.”

[...]

Federal law explicitly prohibits churches from engaging in political campaign activity.

Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, where Jack Hibbs is pastor and school board member Sonja Shaw is a parishioner, should immediately have its tax exempt status revoked under 501 (3)(c).

File a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service HERE. Email the completed form to [email protected].

Specific info for the IRS form:

• This church's EIN (Tax ID #) is 33-0419808.

• Address: 4201 Eucalyptus Ave, Chino, CA 91710

• Complaint Against: Jack Hibbs, Pastor

• Date Of Violation: April 19, 2023

• Description: Pastor Hibbs held a political rally outside the California State Capitol in opposition to a specific bill pending in the legislature. Also published a notice in the church newsletter soliciting attendees for this political lobbying rally under the headline, "California Lobby Day: Stop AB 2223."

• Evidence #1: Political Lobbying Violation on the church's newsletter (include link)

• Evidence #2: Archive.org snapshot of the newsletter article (include link)

#Youtube #news #the daily beast #us politics #christians #Chino Valley Unified School District #Sonja Shaw #christofascists #christofacism #book bans #homophobia #Tony Thurmond #California #Rob Bonta #Bill Essayli #charlie kirk #moms for liberty #proud boys #alt right #Real Impact #Pastor Jack Hibbs #San Bernardino Sun #Calvary Chapel Chino Hills #Gov. Gavin Newsom #2023

[gwydionmisha]

#California #Trans Policies #Schools #School Board #Tony Thurmond #News

[fearsmagazine]

SAW THE MUSICAL : THE UNAUTHORIZED PARODY OF SAW gets NY debut September2023

After a wildly successful run in Philadelphia, Cooper Jordan Entertainment will bring SAW The Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw Off–Broadway this fall. Created by Cooper Jordan (DEX! A Killer Musical, The Rat Pack Undead), SAW The Musical has a book by Award -Winning Writer Zoe Ann Jordan (Virtuoso - NYCHFF) and music & lyrics by Patrick Spencer & Anthony De Angelis (An Axemas Story), and directed by Tony Award Winner Stephanie Rosenberg (Easter Bunny HOP! LIVE; Co-Producer: Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Anastasia) with music direction by Leigh Pomeranz (DEX! A Killer Musical). It will begin performances on September 16, 2023 in, advance of its opening on Sunday, October 1, 2023; the limited run is slated to run through January 1, 2024 at the AMT Theater (345 West 45th Street) in Midtown’s Theater District.

SAW The Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw premieres Off-Broadway Fall 2023 in New York after its smash out-of-town tryout in Philadelphia last year! One of the most thought-provoking horror films of all time now is…a musical . SAW The Musical hilariously captures the events of the first movie, parodying the Saw that started it all, following from where Lawrence Gordon and Adam Stanheight find each other for the first time in the bathroom trap. Will they follow "the rules" as they discover each other's secrets? Will they escape the game in time and saw right through? A love story with fluidity (and lots more fluids), SAW The Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw is Little Shop of Horrors meets Avenue Q , pushing the boundary on sexuality and how to love. {!Parental Advisory: Explicit Content}

"SAW The Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw brings the iconic horror film to life on stage with a wickedly funny twist. Now is the perfect time to laugh at the macabre as we blend horror and hair-raising laughter, creating a unique musical experience that's both hilarious and thrilling. Get ready for a love story entangled in traps, secrets, and unexpected humor, pushing the boundaries of entertainment with a dash of explicit fun." Cooper Jordan, Creator and Producer

SAW The Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw stars Bart Shatto (Bart Shatto Broadway (Dracula: the Musical - Quincey Morris), Tony- nominated War Paint) as Gordon, Adam Parbhoo (NY: Home’s Kitchen) as Adam, Jill Owen (NY Easter Bunny HOP! LIVE;) as Amanda/Alli/Jigsaw and Voiceover for Detective Tapp is by Donnell Johnson, with Danny Durr (National Tour: A Christmas Carol), Gabrielle Goodman (NY: Open, Stay), Patrick Voss Davis (Film: Lucky Louie. Regional: Newsies), James Lynch (New York: Baby Powder), Thomas Skea (Film: Out of Water), Morgan Traud (Regional: Mame), Jessica Morilak (“A Sketch of New York”). Additional cast TBA

The creative team includes Sound Designer Ryan Gravett (Sound Designer), Katie Reif (Associate Sound Designer), Dan Renkin (Fight Director), Sarah Thurmond (Production Manager), and Gabrielle P. Guagenti (Production Stage Manager). The Musical is produced by Cooper Jordan, Saw The Musical Parody LLC, Stephanie Rosenberg, Katie Reif and more to be announced. Cooper Jordan is the Lead Producer.

SAW The Musical: The Unauthorized Parody of Saw begins performances on September 16, 2023, at AMT Theater, located at 345 West 45th Street. It will play on Saturdays at 11 PM and Sundays at 5 PM (after 2pm & 8pm Broadway curtains come down), running 100 minutes with no intermission. Tickets are $41-$113 (incl. fees). Extremely limited “Super Saw VIP Front Row Seats” including The Bathroom Mirror Merch Box are available for every performance for $113 total ($110 + $3 fee), VIP Front Rows A-B at $98 ($95 + $3 fee), Premium at $78 ($75 + $3 fee), Orchestra at $61 ($58 + $ 3 fee) & Rear Orchestra / Mezz at $41 ($38 plus $3 fee) and are available by visiting SawtheMusical.com or at the AMT Theater Box Office in person or by calling 646-543-4385. All VIP Seats include “Pictures with Pigs in Wigs” on Stage following the performance. SAW The Musical contains mature content and is not recommended for children under 16.

#theatre news #off broadway #saw the musical #Unauthorized #Parody #Stephanie Rosenberg #Zoe Ann Jordan #Patrick Spencer #Anthony De Angelis #Cooper Jordan #AMT Theater

[acquariusgb]

Talking it Over- HRC column

Hillary’s weekly column: 21st January 1997 Inauguration Day for Bill and me ended early Tuesday morning after a whirlwind tour of 15 Inaugural Balls. We arrived at the White House around 2 a.m. exhausted but exhilarated. We were also famished. We hadn't eaten since lunch and headed straight to the refrigerator in our private living quarters. As we ate leftovers from a family dinner Bill and I had missed earlier that night, we chatted and recalled our favorite moments of the day. It all began with a prayer service at the historical Metropolitan AME Church in Washington. I couldn't have thought of a better way to start Inauguration Day and the day honoring Martin Luther King Jr. 

As Bill prepares for another four years in office, he knows that he won't be able do his job alone. He needs his faith and people of faith to support him. The morning service, which brought together representatives from Christianity, Judaism and Islam, boosted the congregation's spirits and reaffirmed my belief that much more unites us than divides us. Friends from throughout Bill's life spoke and sang at the service. Bill Hybels, pastor of Willow Creek Community Church outside Chicago, spoke of the visits he and my husband have shared every month for the past four years, praying and talking together, strengthening their faith and building a friendship. Jesse Jackson and Tony Campolo, an evangelist minister from Philadelphia, delivered sermons challenging us all to remember our obligations to the poor. And Jennifer Holiday closed the service with a rousing rendition of "Amazing Grace" that lifted the roof and our hearts. After the service, Bill and I returned to the White House, where we greeted congressional leaders who had come to escort Bill to the Capitol. As we drove to the Capitol, I looked out the window and saw people already staking out seats along the parade route. I also saw a few protesters, who reminded me of the greatness of our democracy and our right to disagree with each other openly and peacefully. It was cold and overcast as Chelsea and I took our seats with Tipper Gore and her children at the oath-taking ceremony. I held Bill's Bible open to a passage he had selected - Isaiah 58:12 - which he later used in his speech when he said we should all be "repairers of the breach." When he repeated his name after Justice Rehnquist, "I, William Jefferson Clinton," tears welled up in my eyes, and I thought I was going to cry. I felt proud and awed as I watched my husband walk toward the podium on the West Front of the Capitol, looking out toward the mall and the Washington monument. 

I had been worried about Bill's voice for three days. It had turned hoarse on Friday, and I had pleaded with him to stay in for the weekend. (I am known in my family as an incurable worrier.) But Monday, his voice was strong and clear. As Bill began his speech, the sun emerged from the clouds and bathed him in light. Chelsea and I were amazed by the weather's good timing. After the ceremony, we went to Statuary Hall, one of the most historic rooms in the Capitol for lunch with members of Congress. The menu was composed of dishes Thomas Jefferson served 200 years ago while he was in the White House. I sat between my husband and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (who, ironically, was seated to my left). Chelsea sat next to Strom Thurmond, who at 94 is still one of the Senate's greatest charmers. When Sen. Warner presented the President with the traditional gift of an already-framed picture of the morning's ceremony, I did not remember the same event occurring four years ago. Looking back, I realize I was too anxious and overwhelmed to take in the details of my husband's first inauguration. This time, I was much more relaxed and savored every moment. I was thrilled at the number of people who had come out on such a cold day to watch the inaugural parade. Bill, Chelsea and I walked the last few blocks to the White House. We saw familiar faces in the crowds and waved to them. Bill even caught sight of a man he had worked with on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while he was a student at Georgetown University 30 years ago. The parade itself had everything from mariachi bands to polka dancers to gymnasts. I was especially pleased to see groups that I had personally invited, including Florida A&M's prized marching band and the Yelm, Wash., Elementary School Choir. The hardest part of the day was finding the energy to change into our formal wear for the evening's balls. I was afraid to nap between the parade and the balls for fear of not being able to get up. But before we knew it, Bill and I were in the motorcade, dropping in on one ball after the other and dancing to "Unforgettable." The energy of the people having a good time kept me going, even as my feet protested with every step. And when Bill and I returned to the White House, we realized we had carried all of the day's good feelings home with us.

#the clintons #hillary clinton #bill clinton #testimonials #personal testimonials #hrc weekly column #White House Years #bill and hillary

[bighermie]

Share Link

WATCH: Local School Board Kicks Out California Superintendent from Meeting on Transgender Parental Notification https://www.breitbart.com/education/2023/07/21/watch-local-school-board-kicks-out-california-superintendent-from-meeting-on-transgender-parental-notification/

[coochiequeens]

Dear TRAs if you threaten to "dismember someone and to kill their kids and pets" please accept that you are NOT on the right side of history.

The Chino Valley (California) Unified School District (CVUSD) Board of Education's new parental notification policy on transgender students is getting backlash from some community members who have reportedly launched death threats against the board president.

The policy adopted with a 4-1 decision last week requires the "principal/designee, certified staff, and school counselors" to, within three days of becoming aware of the preference, notify parents of a student's decision to identify with a gender that does not directly correspond with their biological sex, use different pronouns or a different name or use locker rooms and/or restrooms that do not correspond with their biological gender.

Days later, CVUSD President Sonja Shaw told "Washington Watch With Tony Perkins" that a death threat against her came through on an anonymous phone call the day after the decision. 

"The next morning, our district got a phone call. A lot of things were said, but one thing was very clear — this person was going to kill me, and they said they were going to dismember my body parts, my limbs more specifically," Shaw told the show on Monday.

"Thank God we have an amazing police department who jumped on it right away." 

Hours later, she checked her district email and found it inundated with threats.

"[Things like] 'you're going to die' with other inappropriate words, ‘your children are going to die,’ and ‘your animals are going to die…'" Shaw continued, telling the show that those behind the threats noted the types of animals she has. Members of Antifa also "declare[d] war" on her, she said

The development comes days after Shaw tossed out California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, who attended a school board meeting to object the decision. He warned that the policy "may fall outside of the laws that respect privacy and safety for our students, but may put our students at risk because they may not be in homes where they can be seen." 

Shaw was elected to the board in November and is the mom of two Chino Valley students, according to her district biography. After coming into the role, she and other board members wanted to make some changes, Shaw said.

"Coming into being on the board, we had a policy that was quite the opposite. That was to keep the secret," Shaw explained during the Friday broadcast of "Washington Watch." 

"A lot of it has to do with the perversion of our children and, with all these bills on the table, it only made sense to put some safeguards back in place… a coalition of us worked on this policy… and it only made sense to bring it forward."  

She accused Sacramento of "waging war" on parental rights, while saying Thurmond has had the district "on his radar" for some time.

In a statement, California Gov. Gavin Newsom previously called out the district for the decision: "The three political activists on the school board have yet again proven they are more interested in breaking the law than doing their jobs of educating students — so the state will do their job for them."

The controversy comes as Newsom's office engaged in another tussle with the Temecula Valley Unified School District, located east of Los Angeles, after conservative board members refused to adopt state-approved materials for their students.

Fox News Digital reached out to both Newsom's office and Shaw for additional comment on the backlash against the Chino Valley School District, but did not immediately hear back.

#I hate fox news #But even a broken clock is right twice a day #USA #california #Chino Valley #The Chino Valley (California) Unified School District (CVUSD) Board of Education #Of course the trans rage is directed at a woman

[cherdenjohns]

State Superintendent for Public Instruction Backs Paid Pregnancy Leave Bill for Educators

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced his support for Assembly Bill 2901, or the Pregnancy Leave for Educators Act.

[loscerritoscommunitynews]

Four ABC Schools Earn California Distinguished School Award

@markpulido @theChrisApodaca @wrdsocal @alisajjadtaj @honorable_melissa_ramoso @drvictormanalo @supjanicehahn @ssmithabcpio @frank_yokoyama @abcunifiedparents @melcortezabc @abcusdstories @abcteachernews

March 4, 2024 By Brian Hews DOWNEY, CA – State Superintendent Tony Thurmond has announced the selection of 104 schools from Los Angeles County for the prestigious 2024 California Distinguished Schools Program. This program, administered by the California Department of Education, recognizes schools that demonstrate outstanding achievements in academic excellence and student success. Among the…

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#california distinguished schools

[epacer]

Education

Culture Wars at Local School Boards Prompt Calls for State Intervention

Last week’s tussles between state officials and a pair of Southern California school boards may have died down, but they’ve thrown a spotlight on deeper tensions over who makes decisions for local schools — a rift that’s likely to grow as the culture wars escalate.

Both incidents, which garnered national attention, centered on LGBTQ issues and the state’s ability to rein in local boards that it says may have violated California’s education and civil rights laws.

“We can expect to see more of this as these right-wing groups now follow a scripted  playbook and there’s a new level of organization,” said Bruce Fuller, a UC Berkeley professor of education and public policy. “And certainly as long as we have an ambitious governor, we can expect to see these battles repeated.”

Last week, Chino police escorted the state’s top education official, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, from a school board meeting after he urged the board to reject a plan he viewed as harmful LGBTQ students. The plan, based on a stalled Assembly bill, called for school staff to notify parents if a child identifies as a gender they weren’t assigned at birth. The board ended up approving the proposal 4-1.

Earlier in the month, Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to fine Temecula Valley Unified $1.5 million for rejecting a state-approved textbook that included a supplemental lesson on Harvey Milk, the former San Francisco supervisor who was assassinated in 1978. Newsom said the state would order the new textbooks on its own and bill the district.

Last week, the board relented and agreed to purchase the new textbooks but review the material related to gay rights, replacing it with a curriculum that reflects “the board’s commitment to exclude sexualized topics of instruction from the elementary school grade levels.”

Enforcing the Education Code

State officials have several enforcement options when they believe districts have run afoul of the education code. Those include fines, like the one Newsom threatened in Temecula Valley; publicly voicing disapproval, such as Thurmond’s comments in Chino Valley; and investigation and litigation, which Attorney General Rob Bonta said he would pursue in Temecula Valley. The California Department of Education also has a complaint process, which anyone can use if they believe their district isn’t complying with state law.

There’s also legislation. Recently, Thurmond and Newsom have thrown their support behind AB 1078, which would raise the threshold for school districts to ban books, from a simple board majority to a two-thirds majority. The bill would also strengthen the FAIR Act, a state law that requires districts to include the contributions of African American, Native American, Mexican American, LGBTQ and other under-represented groups in history and social studies curriculum.

The bill’s author, Democratic Assemblymember Corey Jackson of Moreno Valley, said legislation like AB 1078 is more important than ever as the state seeks tougher tools to punish districts that stray from civil rights laws.

“These culture wars are being used to generate anger to achieve political goals,” Jackson said. “We have to close as many loopholes as possible.”

The crux of the issue, Jackson said, is local control, the decade-old policy that gives school districts a large degree of autonomy in how they operate. Put forth by then-Gov. Jerry Brown, the Local Control Funding Formula was meant to decentralize state education, allowing districts to tailor their spending policies to the unique needs of their students.

In some cases, Jackson said, local control has gone too far.

“I know my history too well to have faith in local control,” Jackson said. “If a school district discriminates against students, puts politics ahead of education, I honestly don’t have any limits when it comes to limiting local control. … Once you start creating a climate that is not welcoming to all students you’re mandated to serve, districts need to know: We are coming for you.”

Nuances of Local Control

Under the previous funding system, schools received money through grants earmarked for specific programs. Under local control, district funding comes through a formula based on how many low-income students, English learners and foster youth are enrolled. School boards, not the state, decide how to spend the money, allowing them a degree of autonomy they didn’t have previously.

But some districts fear that with bills like Jackson’s and other recent moves, the state might be taking back some of that control. Recently, the state has added several categorical grants and mandated programs and increased its interest in local school board matters, such as in Temecula Valley and Chino Valley. That’s one reason the California School Boards Association has so far opposed Jackson’s bill, saying it would pose an unnecessary hardship for the vast majority of school districts that comply with the law, and that the state already has adequate safeguards.

“We are greatly concerned with how (the bill) is drawn from the experience of two or three school districts to apply statewide,” the association wrote to the chair of the Senate Education Committee, noting that California has nearly 1,000 school districts.

Troy Flint, the school board association’s spokesperson, said districts are hoping that the trend does not continue, even as the culture wars intensify.

“There has been increased encroachment on local control from a budgetary, policy and administrative perspective,” he said. “School districts and county offices of education believe that their knowledge base and relationships, as members of the community, are essential in developing and implementing policies that make sense for their particular student populations. So naturally, they are very protective of local control.”

A spokesman for Newsom’s office said that the governor is committed to local control, and the incident in Temecula Valley was an isolated, egregious example of a district flouting the law.

“Local control is not — and has never been — a license to willfully violate the law,” said Ben Chida, the governor’s chief deputy cabinet secretary and senior education policy advisor.

Steve Zimmer, California’s deputy superintendent for student support services, reiterated the state’s support for local control.

“The Superintendent and I are both former school board members. We believe strongly in local control. Local control is a core value of the California public education system,” Zimmer said. “But there have to be checks and balances.”

Increasing Vitriol

Regardless, school boards are likely to remain an epicenter of conflict, especially as the presidential election nears, said Julie Marsh, professor of education policy in the Rossier School of Education and the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California.

“I don’t think it’s going to die down. School boards have become a pawn in a broader national campaign,” Marsh said. “All of this is bringing to a head a classic conflict in education — what’s the role of the state? Local control has to be for everyone, but in some districts we’re now seeing a need for guardrails.”

She worries about the growing lack of civility and threats of violence. In his response to Temecula Valley, Newsom described three of the board members as “radicalized zealots” and “extremists.” In Chino Valley, board President Sonja Shaw accused Thurmond of “proposing things that pervert children.”

Some of the vitriol began during the pandemic, when angry parents in some parts of the state protested school closures, mask mandates and vaccines. For some parents, the anger grew to encompass how schools teach subjects related to race, sex and other culture war issues.

Capitalizing on some of the dissatisfaction, the state Republican party last year launched the “Parent Revolt” campaign, urging frustrated parents to run for their local school boards. Shaw, the Chino Valley board president, was elected as part of that wave.

Angry rhetoric undoubtedly plays a role in the high turnover rate among superintendents, and the fact that some school boards can’t fill their vacancies, Marsh said. It also deters members of the public from speaking out, for fear of threats or intimidation.

“This is not unique to California and it’s not unique to school boards,” she said. “We’re very concerned about the extreme emotion, the tone, the polarization, the personal attacks. We need some kind of legislation to protect civility in public meetings.”

Fuller agreed that the rhetoric can have a corrosive effect on schools and other institutions. While the governor and state superintendent were right to step in, perhaps they could have settled the conflict behind the scenes, instead of drawing more attention to the matter.

“They could have deployed their influence to expand understanding and engage people with whom they disagree. Instead they became antagonistic to gain political attention,” Fuller said. “They could have settled the issue quietly, rather than spurring it on. There are compelling reasons for the state to intervene in some cases, but why not first try to negotiate an agreement.”

Meanwhile, the battle over the rights of LGBTQ students is likely to continue. Zimmer  said the state is looking at various options to pressure Chino Valley to overturn its policy related to LGBTQ students.

The state is also urging students in that district to seek help if they need it. The state’s Department of Education offers numerous resources for LGBTQ students, families and schools.

“We’re very clear that their dignity and humanity matters, and they have a right to a welcoming, safe school environment,” Zimmer said. “Superintendent Thurmond stands behind them and will continue to fight for them.” *Reposted article from CalMatters by Carolyn Jones on July 30, 2023

[kammartinez]

By Jill Cowan

Adrianne Peterson, the manager of the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library, was actually a little embarrassed by the modest size of her Pride Month display in June. Between staff vacations and organizing workshops for graduating high school students, it had fallen through the cracks and fell short of what she had hoped to offer.

Yet the kiosk across from the checkout counter, marked by a Progress Pride rainbow flag, was enough to thrust the suburban library onto the front lines of the nation’s culture wars.

Ms. Peterson, who has run the library branch since 2012 and highlighted books for Pride Month for the better part of a decade, was taken aback when she read an email last month from two neighborhood residents. They informed her that they had gotten nearly all of the books in the Pride display checked out and would not return them unless the library permanently removed what they considered “inappropriate content.”

“It was just kind of like, ‘Whoa, curveball,’” Ms. Peterson said. “I began to wonder, ‘Oh, have I been misunderstanding our community?’”

Soon, she would get her answer: Stacks of Amazon boxes containing new copies of the books the protesters checked out started to arrive at the library after The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the protest. Roughly 180 people, mostly San Diegans, gave more than $15,000 to the library system, which after a city match will provide over $30,000 toward more L.G.B.T.Q.-themed materials and programming, including an expansion of the system’s already popular drag queen story hours.

In an ever divided nation, Americans are waging battles in big ways and small, right down to turning their library cards into protest weapons.

Right-wing activists have challenged the recognition of June as Pride Month and have sought to remove textbooks from schools and L.G.B.T.Q.-affirming picture books from libraries. In Republican-led states, those in office have used their power to change policy and ban materials contested by conservatives.

Adrianne Peterson, the branch director of the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library.Credit...John Francis Peters for The New York Times

But even in California and other states led by Democrats, demonstrations against Pride events and L.G.B.T.Q.-themed books have broken out in recent weeks.

In North Hollywood, a neighborhood within the liberal stronghold of Los Angeles, a Pride flag was burned at an elementary school and dueling protests days later over a Pride assembly devolved into scuffles outside the campus. In Temecula, not far from San Diego, the conservative majority of the school board twice rejected elementary school materials that discuss Harvey Milk, the slain gay rights leader, and L.G.B.T.Q. history before agreeing to acquire them after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to fine the school district $1.5 million for not complying with state standards.

And in Chino, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond, was kicked out of a school board meeting on Thursday after criticizing a proposal by conservatives that would notify parents if a student asks to use a name or pronoun that does not align with their birth certificate.

In San Diego, supporters of L.G.B.T.Q. rights were quick to counter opponents. The city council member who represents Rancho Peñasquitos, Marni von Wilpert, condemned the library protest against Pride books and asked the community to help restore the display.

Like many Southern California suburbs, Rancho Peñasquitos, in the northeastern part of San Diego, was once solidly Republican territory. But the community has become more liberal over the years, attracting a diverse range of residents with its highly rated schools and glimpses of the Pacific Ocean. Ms. von Wilpert is the first Democrat to represent District 5, which now includes Rancho Peñasquitos. The neighborhood did have a Democratic council member when it was part of a more liberal district.

The political shift reflects changes in San Diego at large. Long known as a military town with religious roots that date back to the first Spanish mission in California, the city had favored Republicans for most of its history. But like other parts of the state, San Diego has grown more diverse after decades of immigration and the establishment of a booming biotech sector. After victories in 2022, Democrats held all nine seats on the City Council for the first time.

The city also has embraced the L.G.B.T.Q. community; in 2020, voters elected Todd Gloria as San Diego’s first openly gay mayor, and have sent Toni Atkins to the State Legislature, where she has become the first lesbian to serve as the leader of each house. Both are Democrats.

The San Diego Public Library’s parade contingent marching in the San Diego Pride Parade earlier this month.Credit...John Francis Peters for The New York Times

Ms. von Wilpert grew up in Rancho Peñasquitos and in 2020 won a closely fought race to represent her home district, where Democrats now have a plurality of registered voters and there are almost as many independents as Republicans. Ms. von Wilpert, who is a member of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, said she appreciated how quickly her neighbors rallied to support the library.

“Suburban, formerly conservative communities are still not buying into this culture war idea that we can’t have love and tolerance and acceptance,” she said. “That has been amazing.”

Conservative groups nationwide have pushed to ban books that discuss L.G.B.T.Q. issues from libraries and schools, saying that parents should be able to control what their children are being taught.

The San Diego residents who sent the email to the Rancho Peñasquitos Library, Amy M. Vance and Martha Martin, did not respond to requests for comment. City officials said they have not heard since from the library patrons.

The text of their email was identical to a template posted online by a right-wing group called CatholicVote, which has an office in Indiana and is not affiliated with the Catholic church. The group has promoted a “Hide the Pride” campaign that encourages supporters to check out or move books that depict L.G.B.T.Q. characters and families. Organizers have described such material as pornographic and obscene and said it should not be available to young library patrons.

“The library needs to use its discretion in how it will make certain content available to people who have very different beliefs about whether this is appropriate for kids,” said Brian Burch, the president of CatholicVote.

Among the books on the group’s target list are “Julián Is a Mermaid,” a picture book about a little boy whose grandmother takes him to a mermaid parade at Coney Island, and “Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress,” another picture book about a boy who loves using his imagination and wearing an orange dress to school. Both were checked out by the protesters in San Diego.

Mr. Burch said that his group does not encourage supporters to break the law. But, he said, if one decides to keep a book indefinitely, “that’s perfectly fine.”

The mission of public libraries is to provide access to any kind of information, even if it is offensive to some, said Misty Jones, the director of the San Diego Public Library. The San Diego library system also does not restrict children from materials that have adult content, according to its library card form.

The Pride-themed 2023 library cards for San Diego Public Library members.Credit...John Francis Peters for The New York Times

Marni von Wilpert, a San Diego councilwoman, helped draw attention to the situation at the library.Credit...John Francis Peters for The New York Times

Librarians say that it has become more difficult to retain open access as book challenges have exploded in the past two years.

Last year, 2,571 unique titles faced censorship attempts — a 38 percent increase over 2021 and a record high, according to the American Library Association. The A.L.A. also documented 1,269 demands to censor library books or materials, the highest number since the association started collecting data more than two decades ago.

In Greenville, S.C., library board members sought to ban two dozen titles this year, though they ultimately dropped that effort in favor of rules that restrict books on gender identity to adult sections. Last year, a Michigan town defunded its library after librarians refused to remove L.G.B.T.Q.-themed books.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who serves as director of the association’s office of intellectual freedom, said that the protesters in San Diego and elsewhere have taken advantage of relaxed policies intended to make books more accessible to patrons who cannot afford hefty fines.

In the San Diego Public Library system, card holders get five renewals for materials as long as no one else has requested them. Then, once a book is overdue, library patrons have two more months to return it before it is considered lost, and then they will be billed for it.

“Things intended to broaden access have been weaponized to engage in censorship,” Ms. Caldwell-Stone said.

At the Rancho Peñasquitos Library, the Pride display has since been replenished. As for the books checked out last month?

They were recently returned.

#books #education #politics #censorship #lgbtqia #homophobia #queerphobia #transphobia

[kamreadsandrecs]

By Jill Cowan

Adrianne Peterson, the manager of the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library, was actually a little embarrassed by the modest size of her Pride Month display in June. Between staff vacations and organizing workshops for graduating high school students, it had fallen through the cracks and fell short of what she had hoped to offer.

Yet the kiosk across from the checkout counter, marked by a Progress Pride rainbow flag, was enough to thrust the suburban library onto the front lines of the nation’s culture wars.

Ms. Peterson, who has run the library branch since 2012 and highlighted books for Pride Month for the better part of a decade, was taken aback when she read an email last month from two neighborhood residents. They informed her that they had gotten nearly all of the books in the Pride display checked out and would not return them unless the library permanently removed what they considered “inappropriate content.”

“It was just kind of like, ‘Whoa, curveball,’” Ms. Peterson said. “I began to wonder, ‘Oh, have I been misunderstanding our community?’”

Soon, she would get her answer: Stacks of Amazon boxes containing new copies of the books the protesters checked out started to arrive at the library after The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the protest. Roughly 180 people, mostly San Diegans, gave more than $15,000 to the library system, which after a city match will provide over $30,000 toward more L.G.B.T.Q.-themed materials and programming, including an expansion of the system’s already popular drag queen story hours.

In an ever divided nation, Americans are waging battles in big ways and small, right down to turning their library cards into protest weapons.

Right-wing activists have challenged the recognition of June as Pride Month and have sought to remove textbooks from schools and L.G.B.T.Q.-affirming picture books from libraries. In Republican-led states, those in office have used their power to change policy and ban materials contested by conservatives.

Adrianne Peterson, the branch director of the Rancho Peñasquitos branch of the San Diego Public Library.Credit...John Francis Peters for The New York Times

But even in California and other states led by Democrats, demonstrations against Pride events and L.G.B.T.Q.-themed books have broken out in recent weeks.

In North Hollywood, a neighborhood within the liberal stronghold of Los Angeles, a Pride flag was burned at an elementary school and dueling protests days later over a Pride assembly devolved into scuffles outside the campus. In Temecula, not far from San Diego, the conservative majority of the school board twice rejected elementary school materials that discuss Harvey Milk, the slain gay rights leader, and L.G.B.T.Q. history before agreeing to acquire them after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to fine the school district $1.5 million for not complying with state standards.

And in Chino, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond, was kicked out of a school board meeting on Thursday after criticizing a proposal by conservatives that would notify parents if a student asks to use a name or pronoun that does not align with their birth certificate.

In San Diego, supporters of L.G.B.T.Q. rights were quick to counter opponents. The city council member who represents Rancho Peñasquitos, Marni von Wilpert, condemned the library protest against Pride books and asked the community to help restore the display.

Like many Southern California suburbs, Rancho Peñasquitos, in the northeastern part of San Diego, was once solidly Republican territory. But the community has become more liberal over the years, attracting a diverse range of residents with its highly rated schools and glimpses of the Pacific Ocean. Ms. von Wilpert is the first Democrat to represent District 5, which now includes Rancho Peñasquitos. The neighborhood did have a Democratic council member when it was part of a more liberal district.

The political shift reflects changes in San Diego at large. Long known as a military town with religious roots that date back to the first Spanish mission in California, the city had favored Republicans for most of its history. But like other parts of the state, San Diego has grown more diverse after decades of immigration and the establishment of a booming biotech sector. After victories in 2022, Democrats held all nine seats on the City Council for the first time.

The city also has embraced the L.G.B.T.Q. community; in 2020, voters elected Todd Gloria as San Diego’s first openly gay mayor, and have sent Toni Atkins to the State Legislature, where she has become the first lesbian to serve as the leader of each house. Both are Democrats.

The San Diego Public Library’s parade contingent marching in the San Diego Pride Parade earlier this month.Credit...John Francis Peters for The New York Times

Ms. von Wilpert grew up in Rancho Peñasquitos and in 2020 won a closely fought race to represent her home district, where Democrats now have a plurality of registered voters and there are almost as many independents as Republicans. Ms. von Wilpert, who is a member of the L.G.B.T.Q. community, said she appreciated how quickly her neighbors rallied to support the library.

“Suburban, formerly conservative communities are still not buying into this culture war idea that we can’t have love and tolerance and acceptance,” she said. “That has been amazing.”

Conservative groups nationwide have pushed to ban books that discuss L.G.B.T.Q. issues from libraries and schools, saying that parents should be able to control what their children are being taught.

The San Diego residents who sent the email to the Rancho Peñasquitos Library, Amy M. Vance and Martha Martin, did not respond to requests for comment. City officials said they have not heard since from the library patrons.

The text of their email was identical to a template posted online by a right-wing group called CatholicVote, which has an office in Indiana and is not affiliated with the Catholic church. The group has promoted a “Hide the Pride” campaign that encourages supporters to check out or move books that depict L.G.B.T.Q. characters and families. Organizers have described such material as pornographic and obscene and said it should not be available to young library patrons.

“The library needs to use its discretion in how it will make certain content available to people who have very different beliefs about whether this is appropriate for kids,” said Brian Burch, the president of CatholicVote.

Among the books on the group’s target list are “Julián Is a Mermaid,” a picture book about a little boy whose grandmother takes him to a mermaid parade at Coney Island, and “Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress,” another picture book about a boy who loves using his imagination and wearing an orange dress to school. Both were checked out by the protesters in San Diego.

Mr. Burch said that his group does not encourage supporters to break the law. But, he said, if one decides to keep a book indefinitely, “that’s perfectly fine.”

The mission of public libraries is to provide access to any kind of information, even if it is offensive to some, said Misty Jones, the director of the San Diego Public Library. The San Diego library system also does not restrict children from materials that have adult content, according to its library card form.

The Pride-themed 2023 library cards for San Diego Public Library members.Credit...John Francis Peters for The New York Times

Marni von Wilpert, a San Diego councilwoman, helped draw attention to the situation at the library.Credit...John Francis Peters for The New York Times

Librarians say that it has become more difficult to retain open access as book challenges have exploded in the past two years.

Last year, 2,571 unique titles faced censorship attempts — a 38 percent increase over 2021 and a record high, according to the American Library Association. The A.L.A. also documented 1,269 demands to censor library books or materials, the highest number since the association started collecting data more than two decades ago.

In Greenville, S.C., library board members sought to ban two dozen titles this year, though they ultimately dropped that effort in favor of rules that restrict books on gender identity to adult sections. Last year, a Michigan town defunded its library after librarians refused to remove L.G.B.T.Q.-themed books.

Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who serves as director of the association’s office of intellectual freedom, said that the protesters in San Diego and elsewhere have taken advantage of relaxed policies intended to make books more accessible to patrons who cannot afford hefty fines.

In the San Diego Public Library system, card holders get five renewals for materials as long as no one else has requested them. Then, once a book is overdue, library patrons have two more months to return it before it is considered lost, and then they will be billed for it.

“Things intended to broaden access have been weaponized to engage in censorship,” Ms. Caldwell-Stone said.

At the Rancho Peñasquitos Library, the Pride display has since been replenished. As for the books checked out last month?

They were recently returned.



#books #education #censorship #politics #lgbtqia #homophobia #queerphobia #transphobia

[denverworksheet]

California school board battles over LGBTQ+ rights intensify after transgender vote in Chino

California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond spoke in support of transgender student rights at Chino Valley Unified school board meeting.

from California https://ift.tt/tnuURkL

[roboe1]

[cultml]

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] Commentary More than four years into a controversial tenure, California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, and a number of Democratic legislators, have endorsed a number of bizarre ideas to force-feed into our taxpayer-funded public schools. Mr. Thurmond has promoted “Pride” month and permitted school libraries to stock LGBT books that commonsense folks would deem inappropriate. He has allowed debunked “history” such as “The 1619 Project” and “A People’s History of the United States” to be taught in the schools. He has also endorsed tribalistic critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion, as if America isn’t already one of the most diverse nations on earth. These ideas suggest that all ethnic minority students are victims rather than shapers of their own destinies and need special favors to succeed. This obsession with ethnicity and race conveniently ignores that America is a land of systemic opportunity wherein everyone is equal under the law. California leaders constantly gaslight about defending democracy, yet their version of democracy excludes parents and school districts. According to the Washington Free Beacon, Mr. Thurmond has recently supported a legislative proposal to mandate LGBT training for public school teachers. Organizations such as Human Rights Campaign Foundation and the Trevor Project would create the Orwellian training curriculum. Supposedly, this training would help teachers “protect” a portion of the diverse student population who might feel marginalized. Has Mr. Thurmond forgotten that the role of education is for students to develop critical thinking skills and learn valuable character traits? Were parents consulted about this ludicrous proposal? Has Mr. Thurmond ignored the fact that students belong to parents and not the state? Strong-arming students or teachers to confront sensitive sexual topics should not be in the wheelhouse of public education. It’s common knowledge that young people don’t produce many of these ideas related to preferred pronouns, inter-sex drugs, puberty blockers, and radical surgeries. They are confused enough with the process of growing up and could do without further stimulus overload from authority figures and social media platforms. Indeed, unscrupulous online influencers promote these off-the-wall pseudo-scientific concepts, because they will never have to endure the mental and spiritual suffering associated with transitioning. These elitists are solely concerned with money and power and have no concern as to how many youngsters are permanently damaged by a process that defies moral and natural law. Unfortunately, state education officials are attempting to create a wedge between parents and their children by creating top-down edicts that usurp local control in education. These bureaucrats are indoctrinating students instead of encouraging the schools to teach a classical education that focuses on character rather than ethnicity, gender, and race. Since state test scores are underwater, teaching computing, reading, and writing would be a good start, along with the healthy study of biological male and female differences. Now is the time for parents to keep informed, seize the bullhorn and demand that public schools stop wasting their tax dollars on oddball courses that coddle students and fail to prepare them for the real world. Exacting standards in STEAM subjects, objective history, and literature need to be restored so that students can learn how to become productive citizens that love their country and want to make it better. Terminating gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms should also be on the checklist of a sound education. Fortunately, there are several examples of positive stories in California’s education environment. The number of charter, private, and religious schools are increasing across the landscape. According to the Orange County Register, the Placentia-Yorba Linda USD is discussing a plan to start the first charter school in the district in time for the 2024-25 school year. It would be called the California Republic Leadership Academy (CRLA), which already has a charter of the same name that will begin operation next month in San Juan Capistrano. Another charter, the Orange County Classical Academy is also good news for parents who favor school choice and school competition. Some charters offer an education similar to the traditional education that has been offered by Hillsdale College since 1843. Others utilize the Franklin Covey model of successful habits that develop character driven citizens who are responsible leaders. CRLA would not allow cellphones, and students are inspired to carry out what is known as “virtuous reading.” This consists of informal or pleasure reading outside of school assignments, which encourages lifelong learning. Finally, one would hope that with all the problems plaguing the public schools, state leaders would focus on a rigorous traditional education, but many appear to be tone deaf. They oppose competition in education and are beholden to union power brokers. They have given in to the woke apparatus, but their wokeness is sleepwalking toward Marxist socialism. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. [ad_2]