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Gov. Gavin Newsom. | Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday vowed that the state will deliver new social studies textbooks to students in the Temecula Valley Unified School District, and make the school board foot the bill, after a majority of its members rejected the books over questionable content.
Newsom and other state officials renewed their calls for the TVUSD Board of Trustees to repeal a 3-2 decision in May to decline use of a state recommended — not mandated — K-5 social studies book, “Social Studies Alive.”
The governor referred to the board members who opposed the tract as part of “cancel culture,” a phrase popularly reserved for the rampaging mobs involved in destruction and desecration of statues on college campuses and elsewhere in the 2010s.
“Radicalized zealots on the school board rejected a textbook used by hundreds of thousands of students, and now children will begin the school year without the tools they need to learn,” Newsom said. “If the school board won’t do its job by its next board meeting to ensure kids start the school year with basic materials, the state will deliver the book into the hands of children and their parents — and we’ll send the district the bill and fine them.”
Newsom implied penalties would stem from the district’s failure to provide learning materials under the Fair, Accurate, Inclusive & Respectful — FAIR — Act of 2011, which holds that broad viewpoints, without prejudice to sexual preference or orientation, should be taught in K-12 schools.
The Temecula school district’s current K-5 social studies curriculum relies on textbooks from 2006, but there aren’t any known findings that the books’ content is in violation of state law.
“I am glad to join in this action with Gov. Newsom and thank him for his leadership in calling for Temecula’s school board to reverse course to prevent further harm to students,” California Superintendent of Instruction Tony Thurmond said. “Inclusive education promotes the academic achievement and social development of our students. School districts should not ban books in California, especially as it harms students of color and LGBTQ+ youth.”
TVUSD board President Joseph Komrosky, along with trustees Danny Gonzalez and Jennifer Wiersma, voted against adoption of “Social Studies Alive” for the K-5 curriculum based in part on its celebration of gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk, whom Komrosky referred to as a “pedophile” for his documented interactions with a teenage boy from another state when Milk was in his 30s.
“My remarks about Mr. Milk are not based upon being a homosexual,” Komrosky said publicly last month. “But rather, based upon an adult having a sexual relationship with a minor. I’ll ask you one simple question, governor: Do you approve of any 33-year-old person, regardless of their gender identity or sexual preference, having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old?”
Gonzalez joined Komrosky, saying that he couldn’t understand the need to highlight Milk in “Social Studies Alive” when there “are plenty of historical figures who made great strides in the (gay) community that are not associated with inappropriate sexual relationships with children.”
“Discussing matters of sexuality with children under 10 in a public school setting is inappropriate,” the trustee said. “As a parent, this is not a conversation (I want my kids to have with) anyone else but me, and especially not before we even learn about the birds and the bees.”
When the Temecula school board held its meeting to finalize a vote rejecting “Social Studies Alive” on May 16, the majority of attendees, mostly parents, were supportive, according to published reports.
Trustees Allison Barclay and Steven Schwarz voted in favor of adopting the book, which was recommended by the Temecula Valley Educators Association.
Gonzalez characterized allegations by the governor that K-5 school kids would be bereft of appropriate social studies reading material because the new textbooks were turned down as hype.
“Our teachers and students will have what they need at the start of (the academic) year, and (we’ll) continue to work through this,” he said.
The fall term in TVUSD begins on Aug. 14.
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