WATCH: Local School Board Kicks Out California Superintendent from Meeting on Transgender Parental Notification

A local school board in Chino Valley, California, ejected California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond after he tried to intervene in a meeting about parental notification for gender transitions.

Chino Valley Unified board Pres Sonja Shaw kicked Tony Thurmond, California State Superintendent of Schools, out of their meeting.

Right before Thurmond was removed, Shaw blamed him for “proposing things that pervert children” then asked why he campaigned with her opponent. pic.twitter.com/8o7XAoEpQM

— InMinivanHell (@inminivanhell) July 21, 2023

Tony Thurmond, California State Superintendent of Schools, addressed the Chino Valley Unified school board during public comments. He had about a minute to speak, after he finished & sat down Pres Shaw addressed him, he stood back up & walked back to mic to respond. Then this: pic.twitter.com/Npgx6EhCeF

— InMinivanHell (@inminivanhell) July 21, 2023

The board voted 4-1 to approve a policy that requires schools in the district to notify parents or guardians if a child wishes to change his or her gender. Critics say the policy requires to “out” transgender kids to parents.

Thurmond, elected in 2018 with backing from the powerful state teachers’ unions, was kicked out after giving a speech warning the school board that they were putting children at risk by notifying parents of their transitions.

The Orange County Register reported:

The policy introduced in June requires schools to notify parents in writing within three days after their child identifies as transgender, is involved in violence or talks about suicide. Under the policy, schools will notify parents if their child seeks to change their name or pronouns or asks for access to gender-based sports, bathrooms or changing rooms that do not match their assigned gender at birth.

Before his removal from the meeting, Thurmond told the board “the policy you consider tonight may not only fall outside of privacy laws but may put our students at risk.”

…

School board President Sonja Shaw kicked him out after she said he continued to speak beyond his allotted one minute.

Thurmond responded on Twitter, saying that the policy threatens the students’ “safety,” and calling the parents “extremists.”

I don’t mind being thrown out of a board meeting by extremists. I can take the heat — it’s part of the job. What I can’t accept is the mistreatment of vulnerable students whose privacy is being taken away.(2/5) Thread

— Tony Thurmond (@TonyThurmond) July 21, 2023

Thurmond was not the only state official to intervene in the Riverside County community’s decision. State Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote to the board to object to notifying parents when children want to change their gender, warning of “potential infringements on students’ privacy rights and educational opportunities.”

Parents at the meeting disagreed, saying that the state was infringing their rights to guide their own children.

A recent Rasmussen poll reported that 84% of California voters support laws requiring parents to be notified about gender transitions by children at school. Nevertheless, the state’s elected Democrats oppose that idea.

Separately, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has intervened in a curriculum decision by a local school board in Temecula, California, purchasing textbooks with LGBTQ+ curriculum that the district has rejected.

A school board in Temecula decided to reject a textbook because it mentioned Harvey Milk.
 
CA is stepping in.

We’re going to purchase the book for these students—the same one that hundreds of thousands of kids are already using.

If these extremist school board members won’t do… pic.twitter.com/r2iirL8b5v

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) July 13, 2023

As Breitbart News reported, Newsom backs a bill moving through the state legislature that would allow him to fine local school districts that do not comply with state curriculum mandates, taking resources from students.

In response to the Chino Valley meeting, Thurmond also tweeted that he backed the bill, threatening to fine districts that rejected state-mandated textbooks, which had nothing to do with the meeting.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

Photo: file