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In Board Meeting, Chino Valley Unified Votes To Out Trans Students To Parents, Ousts State Official
California State Superintendent of Schools Tony Thurmond photographed at an event that celebrated "LGBTQ+ affirming books."
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Justin Sullivan
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Getty Images
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Chino Valley Unified school district passed a policy that requires its schools to tell parents when a student comes out as transgender, uses a different name, or changes pronouns at school.
Here’s the board document (p. 196) with the first version of the policy.
What state law says
California law gives minors wide privacy rights in some areas. Minors can consent to some health care services, including mental health care and pregnancy-related care, and parents are not required to be notified.
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State Superintendent ousted from meeting
State Superintendent Tony Thurmond appeared in person at the meeting, criticizing the policy as a violation of student privacy in comments made ahead of the vote. He was escorted out of the school board meeting after a contentious exchange with the board president who accused him of doing things that "pervert children."
California’s Superintendent of Public Instruction @TonyThurmond went to the school board meeting to stand with these students. The QAnon school board president cut him off, ejected him & accused him of trying to “pervert children.” pic.twitter.com/cEgAfOVG3a
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) July 21, 2023
In a statement he tweeted after the meeting, Thurmond said in part:
"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.
I ask — if I am forcibly removed from a public school board meeting as the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, how are everyday parents and students in Chino Valley Unified supposed to have their voices heard?"
Conflict between statewide officer holders and conservative school boards
Thurmond’s conflict comes as California Governor Gavin Newsom deals with his own tussle with Temecula Valley Unified over a social studies textbook the conservative school board rejected.
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