Temecula high school students are walking out Friday, Sept. 22, to protest their school district’s policy to tell parents if a student identifies as transgender.
After 10 a.m., a line of about 100 students at Great Oak High School marched out the front gates with picket signs and pride flags enroute to Patricia H. Birdsall Sports Park across the street.
I’m at Great Oak High School in Temecula, where students are walking out to protest the school district policy requiring parents to be told if their child identifies as transgender. pic.twitter.com/9shhOV10JW
— Jeff Horseman (@JeffHorseman) September 22, 2023
Walkouts also were scheduled to take place by students at Chaparral High School in Temecula, Temecula Valley High School and Murrieta Mesa High School.
RELATED: Temecula student passes out pride flags to protest ‘targeted’ school policies
But the Temecula Valley walkout was canceled and the Chaparral and Murrieta Mesa walkouts were postponed due to student safety concerns, according to Justin Daley of Temecula Valley Pride.
After reaching the sports park, several students stood on a picnic table and addressed their peers, many of whom draped themselves in LGBTQ pride flags, waved handheld pride flags or held rainbow-colored folding fans.
Others had signs reading “Trans Lives Matter” and “Teach Love Not Hate.” Some held signs supporting the campaign to recall Temecula’s conservative school board majority.
“We should be working to create a safe and inclusive environment where all marginalized groups, including LGBTQ students, feel supported and loved,” Great Oak junior Koda Dickinson told a cheering crowd.
“Instead, these policies have a chilling effect on students’ willingness to seek out support from our educators and school counselors,” Dickinson added. “If we fear that our identities will be disclosed to non-supporters against our will, we may hesitate to confide in the very adults who are hired and paid to keep us safe.”
Moxxie Childs, a transgender Great Oak junior who is handing out hundreds of pride flags to students, accused the board majority — Danny Gonzalez, Joseph Komrosky and Jen Wiersma — of “willingly and knowingly (putting) trans kids in danger for their so-called parents’ rights.”
“If parents really want to know what’s happening with their kids, they need to earn that trust,” Childs said.
“They have put us in danger and they will not stop. They will continue to pass ridiculous policies trying to keep us down, trying to effectively erase us from society (and) erase the eyesore that is people who are different from them.”
Willow Scharf, a Great Oak senior who identifies as non-binary, said the school board’s policies dealing with the LGBTQ community “are irresponsible, immature and dangerous.”
“These policies have nothing to do with our education,” Scharf said. “They benefit none and they harm many.”
Scharf added: “We don’t need an adult to tell us that we matter, that we have the power to influence change. We know that already and as we can see here, now we’re ready to take action.”
District spokesperson Jimmy Evans did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment about the walkout. Nor did Gonzalez, Komrosky and Wiersma.
In an Instagram video defending the board’s recent actions, Wiersma said: “We support (students’) right to be heard, to protest, to do what they need to do.”
“But it’s really important on the back end that you understand what the school is communicating,” she said. “If there are issues with an absence, truancy — all of those things come into play. So it’s always kind of balancing our rights and our natural consequences.”
Before Friday, walkout organizers promoted the event on social media. An email from Great Oak administrators to parents stated the school district does “not support or condone student walkouts” and that students who participate would be marked truant.
After a packed nightlong meeting filled with heated public testimony, Temecula’s school board adopted its transgender notification policy by a 3-2 vote on Aug. 23.
It’s modeled after a similar policy in the Chino Valley Unified School District. School boards in Murrieta, Orange and other Southern California districts have adopted the policy as well, with board members and their allies sharing copies and coordinating efforts to encourage the policy in schools statewide.
The policy’s supporters contend it’s not right for schools to conceal important information from parents, who have a vital role to play in helping children who struggle with their gender identity. Critics argue that the policy might subject children to abuse from unaccepting parents and that students have a right to privacy.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Chino Valley schools, seeking to overturn its policy. A judge on Sept. 6 granted Bonta’s request for a temporary restraining order to block the policy’s implementation in that San Bernardino County school district.
Friday’s walkout was at least the third by Temecula Valley Unified School District students since a trio of newcomers, backed by a local Christian conservative political action committee, won a majority of board seats last November.
One of the conservative bloc’s first actions was to ban the teaching of critical race theory. That prompted at least two student walkouts in December and January.
Gonzalez, Komrosky and Wiersma have angered LGBTQ community advocates with their votes, including their rejection of a social studies curriculum with supplemental materials that referenced LGBTQ civil rights leader Harvey Milk.
Gonzalez and Komrosky called Milk, who was assassinated in 1978, a “pedophile,” prompting a social media rebuke from Gov. Gavin Newsom. The board eventually approved the curriculum after Newsom threatened to send textbooks to Temecula and fine the district $1.5 million.
On Sept. 12, the board voted 3-2 to ban any flag other than the U.S. or California state flag from being displayed on school property. Critics saw this as a move to ban LGBTQ pride flags from being shown on school grounds.
Also Sept. 12, the board voted 3-2 against a resolution to affirm the rights of LGBTQ students and employees. The board’s conservatives took issue with the policy’s wording, with Wiersma saying: “We’re not here to be socially justice warrior-ed all the time.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Related links
Temecula student passes out pride flags to protest ‘targeted’ school policies
Temecula board OKs policy banning pride, other flags from schools
Temecula school board rejects resolution to affirm LGBTQ students’ rights
Temecula school board OKs policy to tell parents if students are transgender
Judge temporarily blocks Chino Valley school board’s transgender notification policy