Angry Parents Protest Religious Right Interference in Southern California School District.

 

Angry Parents Protest Religious Right in a Southern California School District Blake Jones  July 9, 2023 Politico Novice school board members get a hard lesson in politics in a region that could determine control of the House. Students have held protests, and irate parents and teachers are swarming the board’s meetings, feeling that their town, Temecula in Riverside County has become consumed by partisan warfare. , Watchara Phomicinda/The Orange County Register via AP Photo   TEMECULA, Calif. — Three Southern California school board members backed by a far-right pastor narrowly won election last fall in campaigns fueled by pandemic rage. Then they banned critical race theory and rejected social studies materials that included LGBTQ rights hero Harvey Milk. Now, they’re fighting for their political lives. After just six months in office, those officials face a recall effort on top of a civil rights investigation launched by the state’s Democratic-led education department. Students have held protests, and irate parents and teachers are swarming the board’s meetings, feeling that their town — the fast-growing, politically diverse suburb of Temecula in Riverside County — has become consumed by partisan warfare. “We don’t want culture wars. We don’t want Fox News appearances,” Alex Douvas, a parent of two kids in the district who previously worked for two Republican congressmembers in Orange County, told the board recently. “Our schools are not ideological battlegrounds. They’re not platforms for religious evangelism. These are institutions for learning and growth.” The religious right saw an opening to jump into the parental rights movement amid intense backlash about pandemic-era school closures and mask mandates. But those policies have all but disappeared in schools, and it’s proving harder to sustain that level of outrage over teachings on race and gender. The effort to ban certain books and challenge curriculum has split Republicans and polled poorly with independent voters nationally. Local Democrats see the strategy flopping — and are already looking to capitalize on it in a part of the state that has become a battleground for control of the House. Joy Silver, chair of the Riverside County Democrats, said she’s intensely focused on winning down-ballot races like school board seats “because the battles are taking place there.” In Temecula, the political agenda embraced by school board trustees Joseph Komrosky, Danny Gonzalez and Jen Wiersma has set off a different kind of public outrage than was likely intended. The booing and shouting at a recent public hearing grew so loud that the board president — who appeared to be wearing a bullet-proof vest under his sweater — cleared the room. “To the extent you keep it focused on parents and students first, not teachers, I think there’s room where you can push back on quote-unquote “woke” agenda issues, but if you go too far in the other direction and are trying to make that the only issue you care about, I think you’re going to see predictable backlash,” California GOP consultant Rob Stutzman said in an interview. “I look at something like Temecula, and to me it’s an eye roll.” https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/09/culture-clash-religious-right-california-00105259

Fight the Anti Immigrant Right

Whether you are a DSA member of not, you may find North Star's anti ultra-right work deserving of your attention.  We are preparing for DSA's 2023 convention by drafting a resolution about confronting the ultra-right. 

We propose to form a broad front against the US ultra-right which includes MAGA. neo confederates, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, ALEC, militias, too many Republicans, and numerous reactionary super PACs, foundations, and think tanks.  The resolution also proposes improving cooperation among DSA and its sister organizations that is necessary in order to organize the broad front.a-right.

This is the proposed resolution. If you are a DSA member please sign it..
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSQ3iEV2vljCf-Veh3bMDBni_S7_Vowr5TejBQ5fBpxox6ZIJcA1f5hqt2Qhi9C5Mn7rgZpHGRFc-N-/pub

I am reaching out to ask for your support for 3 proposals to this years 2023 DSA Convention.

1.    Unite Against the Ultra Right

2.    On the Defense of Immigrants and Refugees

3.    Big Tent amendment to bylaws

The first resolution is about confronting the ultra-right. It calls to form a broad front against the US ultra-right which includes MAGA, neo confederates, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, ALEC, militias, too many Republicans, and numerous reactionary super PACs, foundations, and think tanks.  

The second resolution I co-authored along with several members of the Immigrants' Rights Working Group on the Defense of Immigrants and Refugees.

The final proposal is an amendment to the DSA bylaws. To damp down the urge to purge, substituting "principles and policies" with DSA Constitution Article II Purpose.

 

More information

 

https://www.dsanorthstar.org/blog/sign-the-resolution-unite-against-the-right