Orange County Voters Recall School Officials Who Championed 'Parental Rights' Movement

Two conservative members of the Orange Unified School District Board of Education are headed out the door after being recalled by voters in a contentious election centered largely on debates over public schools policies on gender and sexuality, and LGBTQ+ students’ rights.

Although the election has yet to be certified by the Secretary of State, school board trustees Rick Ledesma and Madison Miner are losing their recall elections by well over 3,000 votes each. The recalled trustees represent district areas 4 and 7.

The Orange County Registrar of Voters released its latest count as of 5:43 p.m. March 22, and reported that all ballots have been processed.

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Courtesy Orange County Registrar of Voters

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OCVote.org

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Ledesma and Miner gave "goodbye" speeches at a school board meeting last week: "I know I will take great pride in driving around the district and seeing the many, many improvements over my time on this board," said Ledesma, who's been on the board for 24 years.

How we got here

The school district and the recall have become focal points in a battle over what should be taught in public schools.

Ledesma and Miner considered themselves part of the self-named parental rights movement and touted their help in passing a "parents bill of rights" that reiterates parents' rights to review curriculum and have their opinions taken into consideration by district leaders. 

Recall backers saw their agenda as something darker, accusing the pair of, among other things, targeting LGBTQ+ students. During their tenure, Ledesma and Miner helped pass policies that ban flying the Pride flag at schools and require schools to notify parents if their child asks to use a different name or gender than the one assigned to them at birth.

Such debates have led California Attorney General Rob Bonta to file a lawsuit against the Chino school district aimed at blocking what has been referred to as a "forced outing policy."

The effort to recall them began shortly after the 2022 election, when the newly sworn-in board abruptly fired the district superintendent and put the assistant superintendent on administrative leave with little public explanation.

What's next?

This is all unfolding in real time, so stay tuned. But it appears that per the school district's rules, within 60 days of the registrar of voter's official certification of the recall election, the board must either appoint replacements for the two board seats or call for a special election.

Recall co-chair Darshan Smaaladen said she doesn't support calling a special election because of the high cost to district taxpayers.

If the board chooses to appoint replacements, they're required to advertise the seats in local media to solicit applications or nominations. They must then interview the candidates at a public meeting and select the replacements by a majority vote of the remaining five school board trustees.

The replacements will hold office until the November election. In that election, five of the seven Orange Unified school board seats will be on the ballot.

Go deeper:

• Orange Unified School District Recall Election
• Web page of recall supporters
• Web page of recall opponents
• The OUSD recall is a thinly-veiled assault on parents’ rights (OC Register Op-Ed)
• Orange Unified Accused Of 'Full Ambush' To Fire Superintendent. Did It Violate State's Open Meeting Law? (EdSource/LAist)
• A Parent Complained About A Digital Book. Then An Orange County School Board Suspended The Whole Library (LAist)
• Orange Unified Approves Policy To Out Trans Students To Parents (LAist)