Posted on 12/15/2022 12:32:34 PM PST by DogByte6RER
New conservative Christian majority leads way on board’s 3-2 vote to prohibit critical race theory
The teaching of critical race theory was banned in Temecula Valley schools after an emotional marathon meeting that drew hundreds to a Tuesday night, Dec. 13, session in a packed high school theater.
Led by a new conservative Christian board majority seated at the beginning of the meeting, the school board’s 3-2 vote to prohibit such lessons came early Wednesday, Dec. 14.
“A lot has been said tonight,” said newly elected trustee Joseph Komrosky, who proposed the resolution. “I’m here to keep a campaign promise. I have knocked on thousands of doors, talked to thousands of parents and educators … I’m here to honor the majority of the voters in my trustee area, the constituents that put me here.”
Three conservative Christian trustees backed by a PAC during the November election voted yes: Komrosky, Danny Gonzalez and Jen Wiersma. Board members Allison Barclay and Steven Schwartz voted no.
Komrosky and his board colleagues who supported the ban said similar moves against critical race theory have occurred in other school systems, including Paso Robles, without complaint. Komrosky said the resolution — and an anti-racism one also approved Tuesday night on the same split vote — were modeled after those in the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District.
Supporters and opponents of the resolution included Temecula-area parents, students and community members. Some held “No CRT” banners, American and rainbow flags. Others gripped signs promoting inclusivity and equity and urging board members to “stop white washing history.”
Critical race theory involves examining the role of race in society and how racism has been historically embedded in institutions and policies. Many school officials say it’s taught in law school and graduate courses but not on K-12 campuses. Foes disagree and say it is being taught to children.
Komrosky was one of several candidates endorsed by a conservative church-backed political action committee that stated it planned to “take over” the Temecula Valley, Lake Elsinore and Murrieta Valley school boards in southwest Riverside County. Komrosky, a Mt. San Antonio College professor who teaches philosophy, also successfully proposed a resolution condemning racism in the Temecula Valley Unified School District.
He was one of three new school board members, all endorsed by the Inland Empire Family PAC, to be sworn in at the start of Tuesday evening’s session. Shortly after taking the oath, Komrosky was elected as school board president on a 3-2 vote, with Barclay and Schwartz dissenting. PAC-backed trustee Wiersma was chosen as the board’s clerk.
Komrosky’s resolution refers to critical race theory as a “racist ideology,” says it is “divisive” and that it is “based on a false assumption” that “assigns moral fault to individuals solely on the basis of an individual’s race.” It also states that “critical race theory assigns generational guilt and racial guilt for conduct and policies that are long in the past.”
Temecula Valley school district officials did not respond Monday, Dec. 12, to requests for comment, but former school board member Barbara Brosch said Temecula schools do not and have not taught critical race theory.
As for Komrosky’s anti-racism resolution, it won approval on a 3-2 vote late Tuesday, with Barclay and Schwartz voting no and the new majority of Komrosky, Gonzalez and Wiersma voting yes.
That resolution states that “racism has no place in American society, especially not in Temecula Valley Unified,” the resolution states.
Many of those attending Tuesday’s meeting expressed their views.
Stephanie Dawson said critical race theory is “infiltrating schools,” and she is grateful the new board is addressing it.
Christopher Bout said that, with the election of the new board members, he feels “Temecula parents have a voice now,” and that the evening’s meeting “marks a new win for parental rights.”
Simon Cooper said he was excited that the newly elected members have a board majority, calling them “advocates and guardians of truth.”
Tim Thompson, the pastor of the 412 Temecula Valley church who is affiliated with the PAC, also welcomed the new board members. He asked residents to give them “the time to see they have the best of intentions for this community.”
Others questioned the direction of the school board’s new majority.
Alexis Sanabria, a parent of three district students, said she moved to Temecula more than a decade ago because the schools “are amazing.” She wondered why the board was “trying to meddle in something that’s working well.”
“CRT is not taught in our public schools,” Sanabria said. “Name a school, a classroom or a teacher who is teaching this anywhere in our system.”
Madison Fuller, a student at Temecula’s Great Oak High School and president of its Black Student Union, pleaded with the board to “not allow white-washing” and “filtering” of students’ education.
“To filter our education about sensitive topics is to minimize suffering,” Fuller said. “I am not sorry if a White student feels uncomfortable about learning about our nation’s true past. What’s used in our classrooms is critical, unbiased thinking, based on facts that help explain why our world is the way it is now.”
Representatives of community groups also shared concerns.
Members of the One Temecula Valley PAC, which opposed the conservative bloc of candidates now elected to local school boards, issued a statement Tuesday opposing both resolutions.
The group alleged the critical race theory proposal comes “directly from the playbooks of radical right-wing Christian conservative groups such as Moms for Liberty, Proud Boys and Heritage Foundation.” The PAC — which said critical race theory has “never has been taught” in Temecula schools — also said the proposals would “open the door for a politically-charged witch hunt” on district officials.
Members of the teachers’ union, the Temecula Valley Educators’ Association, filled the auditorium, many holding signs and wearing their signature blue shirts.
Union president Edgar Diaz called the resolutions “vague” and a “lightning-rod issue” for education.
“The CRT resolution talks about elements and derived doctrines that cannot be taught … this is for an ideology that is not taught in a class or as part of the curriculum in TVUSD,” said Diaz, who teaches U.S. history at Gardner Middle School in Temecula.
Diaz said he has never had a parent ask him about critical race theory, and that society’s responsibility is to confront “complex relationships” that “may challenge our understanding of the founding of country we thought we knew.”
“I did not know what this meant, until these last political cycles,” he said. “CRT is used as a political item of a platform, to do what? I cannot tell you.”
Surprised they didn't call it a "conservative, Christian, racist, white supremacist homo/trans-phobic school board."
Interesting that they capitalized Christian though.
Excellent.
CRT believes whites utilized their genetic and cultural advantages over other races to set up a structure that benefits whites. However, if all races and cultures are equal, there are no race and/or cultural advantages. You can’t have it both ways.
Considering that the liberal view is that CRT is not being taught, then what is wrong with the resolution banning it from being taught , if it isn’t being taught in the first place?
Good point!
Good. One small victory. Thousands more needed to roll back this tsunami of leftist destruction.
The school board in my SF East Bay community for the past few years has always voted 5-0 in lockstep on leftist issues until this past election, when about 70 volunteers (including me) worked hard canvassing, phone banking, working farmers market booths—with the help of a great sign team—to elect a MAGA candidate. He won by only 230 votes. Now the board will vote 4-1 on the left. It’s a start.
(In the meantime, I pulled out my teens to private school and homeschooling in 2020.)
What a loon that woman was. IIRC, she went to Gonzaga University. Somehow seems appropriate.
Well done!
My two kids both went through a pretty “woke” suburban school district in suburban New York State. Both turned out to be solid conservatives. Son 26, daughter 22.
“CRT believes whites utilized their genetic and cultural advantages over other races to set up a structure that benefits whites.”
Years ago the main tenant was CT, Critical Theory. The working class would revolt and destroy capitalism.
But the working class didn’t, so it became CRT. The blacks in America would revolt.
Borsch, Sanabria, Fuller, Diaz are typical leftist fkn liars.
-fJRoberts-
If they are not doing it why do they have a problem with a resolution against it ?
-fJRoberts-
Not in Temecula Valley you won’t , marxists, nope crt kicked back into the sewer where it came from.
Didn’t read the entire article but does this mean that they can no longer teach little white kids that they’re racists and that people of color are far better people than they are?
Bkmk
God bless America!
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