A sea of protesters is rallying before the Temecula school board’s Tuesday, June 13, meeting, denouncing the conservative majority’s recent rejection of a social studies curriculum that mentions slain gay rights leader Harvey Milk.
Led by the Temecula Valley Educators Association, demonstrators packed the theater at Temecula Valley High School in advance of the meeting set to begin at 6 p.m. They criticized the board’s move and said it could leave children without textbooks when the next school year begins.
RELATED: Could Temecula school board fire its superintendent?
“It’s never been like this,” Temecula district parent Bex Heid said. “The only reason it is, is because of the new board members. Instead of them, we need people who are stable and understand empathy.”
Anastasia Lewis, a teacher at Temecula Valley High School and a parent, called it “crazy” that the board could leave teachers without books.
“The new board members have allowed politics before our kids,” Lewis said. “And it’s heartbreaking.”
The rally comes after several separate protests and the involvement in the district’s affairs of state officials, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta and state Superintendent of Public School Instruction Tony Thurmond.
In a tweet, Newsom called Temecula school board President Joseph Komrosky “ignorant” after Komrosky called Milk “a pedophile” during a May meeting. Bonta sent a letter to the Temecula Valley Unified School District demanding answers about the blocked material. And Thurmond’s office has opened an investigation into the district, though his spokesperson would not explain its purpose.
On May 16, the Temecula school board’s conservative Christian majority voted against a new social studies curriculum, with Komrosky and Danny Gonzalez citing the mentioning of Milk. In addition to Komrosky, Gonzalez also called Milk “a pedophile” at that session.
In addition to the teachers union, organizations attending the rally included Temecula Valley Pride and One Temecula Valley.
Kristi Gin, a middle-school teacher at Erle Stanley Gardner Middle School, said her belief is simple: “Students deserve books.”
“I reviewed the books and I trust the expertise from the teachers and if there’s a problem with the book, parents should communicate with teachers, rather then the board just rejecting a whole curriculum,” Gin said.
About 47 teachers studied and proposed that the curriculum be used in first through fifth grades for the next eight years, starting with the 2023-24 school year. The cost would have been about $1.6 million, according to a report to the board in May.
But the board rejected the curriculum on a 3-2 vote. Board member Jen Wiersma said LGBTQ issues and sexual orientation don’t need to be taught in kindergarten through fifth grades. Komrosky and Gonzalez didn’t agree with the mention of Milk in optional supporting materials. Milk is not in the textbook.
In response to Newsom’s tweet, Komrosky and Gonzalez staged a news conference at a Murrieta church last week. Komrosky said he was not referring to Milk’s sexuality, but to reports that the gay rights activist had a relationship with a teenager.
Gonzalez echoed Komrosky’s statement about Milk and said misinformation is being reported by news outlets and the teachers union about the need for a new curriculum. He said Thurmond told him the district could print current books. Gonzalez and Komrosky declined to answer questions from the media.
In the 1960s, Milk, then 33, had a relationship with a 16-year-old named John Galen McKinley, late journalist Randy Shilts wrote in a 1982 biography of Milk called “The Mayor of Castro Street.”
Last week, Edgar Diaz, president of the Temecula Valley Educators Association, proposed having the board reconsider the curriculum, but the item was not added to the agenda, he said.
“As of right now, elementary students will not have new books for the coming school year,” Diaz said by phone before the meeting. “As we prepare for next year, this all is bringing unanticipated chaos and instability to the educators in the district, who continue to provide a quality education for our students at the elementary level and it has put into questions what direction the district will be headed to.”
