California parents oust school board members who enacted anti-LGBTQ+ policy
California parents oust school board members who enacted anti-LGBTQ+ policy
Two members of the Orange Unified School District board have been removed by parents who opposed a policy requiring school staff to out transgender kids.
Two members of the Orange Unified School District board have been removed by parents who opposed a policy requiring school staff to out transgender kids.
Parents in Southern California have voted to remove two conservative school board members after they spearheaded a policy that forcibly outs transgender students to their guardians.
Members of the Orange Unified School District board voted 4-0 to enact the policy in September. It was passed at 11:30 p.m., after the three opposed members walked out and withheld their votes.
The policy states that parents must be notified when a student seeks “to be identified as a gender other than the student’s biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate or any other official records.” This includes names, nicknames, and pronouns, and applies even if the student hasn’t taken action but has discussed the matter with a counselor.
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At the initial meeting in September, the board was overwhelmed by crowds who showed up to either protest or support the policy. However, the majority of the attendees voicing support did not have children in the district's schools, and most were not residents of the area, according to the Times.
Remember, people, being informed about who is running for even the lowest level elected positions is very important.
Those positions often have the most day-to- day impact on your individual life, and they are typically the least voted for races.
And yet, local media has become such shit that it’s impossible to research the positions of many local candidates.
During the last elections here, the media sent out questionnaires to all of the school board candidates and half of them didn't bother to respond.
The local subreddit crowdsourced background info on all the candidates and helped identify several of the wingnut wannabe authoritarians.
.
Though one did manage to get elected and almost immediately got suspended for acting like the racist she is during the meetings, and then freaking out when called out for her behaviour.
League of women’s voters website is usually a good resource. They send each candidate a questionnaire and publish what they get back.
You might be shocked at how accessible local politicians can be. It astonishingly easy to get into local politics.
Show up, introduce yourself, shake hands, rinse and repeat. You'll soon get to know who's who and how the tides are moving. You'll see who has influence, and why, learn from there.
LOL, you got me thinking about jumping back in. Locally, some people got together to fight an initiative we didn't like. Nobody powerful or monied, but they won.
That happened with my local library system. We had a dipshit conservative try to ban pride displays. Turns out, even if this is a red county, the people who actually read books and care about public services don't like that, and now knew to pay attention to local library politics. The hearing about it was packed, and she lost badly the next election.
I admit I didn't consider voting in library board elections before, but now you bet I'm showing up.
Some good news sure is refreshing
the majority of the attendees voicing support did not have children in the district’s schools, and most were not residents of the area, according to the Times.
As they're fighting culture wars at other people's expenses, on the behalf of their political side, which will not care nor protect them as they think. In which word is it acceptable that a complete stranger has a say in an institution in which they won't ever take part in?
I feel like a lot of these situations could be mitigated by only allowing people with children in the school to attend, or at least only people who live in the district. It would at least keep those astroturfed groups out, like moms for fascism and the like
US policing is like this too. we could greatly improve police results by instituting local civilian boards to oversee police conduct and require police live in the areas they patrol.
How can you be a member of the school board in an area you don't live?
It said the supporters were from elsewhere, not the school board members. Or did I miss that?
Hi I live in this district and was part of the recall effort. Those board members didn't have kids in OUSD schools. They send their kids to private school. I don't know where they live, but they are politically active in other nearby communities outside the district and would encourage extreme political activists that don't live in our district to come make a circus out of board meetings. Their focus was not on kids or schools. Their interest was only in chaos.
Everybody should drink a couple of glasses of water and mind their own business.
TL;DR: grownups tried to bully all the "not normal" kids in one go, forever. They're lucky this push-back is so civil. Here's a take on why this theme looks familiar: it's patriarchy.
When you have negative politicized action to reinforce "traditional" gender roles, it's always in defense of a hierarchy, with hetero men on top ("patriarchy")*. Embracing equality pushes the social norm towards treating people like people, regardless of gender, eradicating the social barriers and roles in that hierarchy. This effectively tears down a whole kind of class stratification and the power structure that comes from it. It doesn't scare people; it directly threatens their power and feels like a personal attack, which fuels all the moral licensing needed to be deviously underhanded in retaliation.
IMO, we should quit being surprised and outraged, and instead just expect that some knuckle-draggers are going to show up to try and ruin a good thing. Because as long as someone is invested in punching down on others, it's possible that they'll punch all the way to some position of authority if nobody stops them.
(* I have yet to witness a conservative regressive matriarchy, but I'm sure they exist somewhere.)
!Manos@lemm.ee -61 points 11 hours ago
Tried stating a reasonable opinion with questions, got buried so hard I can't respond to the comment without it getting buried and disappearing. Civil discourse anyone? Or is civility only for people you mostly agree with? LOL, this post is blocked so hard I can't even read the replies without them disappearing. I can't even tell what OP said that was out-of-bounds.
This is how we create rightwing nuts. Take a person's reasonable post, beat the shit out of them for some much as having a question, pondering the pros and cons. Nope. Straight to jail.
Put yourself in OP's shoes. "Fuck me. I just said what I felt as a parent, how I might react. And I get hit with a wall of hate and bans?!" How do you think lemmy swayed OP's opinion? Discuss. (You'll get banned or blocked if you do, but grow a pair, state your case.)
I honestly don't know how I feel about this. If my kid (which I do have one) was trying to pass as another gender in school, but not home, I would want to know. It's generally not good for kids to keep big secrets like this from the people looking out for them. That's how they end up getting in to trouble in life.
Yeah, I'd want to know if my child was hiding something so utterly life changing. I hope my kids trust me, but coming out as trans is about as big as it gets.
At the same time, I'm not the kind of parent that wouldn't support my kid through such an issue. I understand it could be dangerous for some kids to be outted to their parents, but I don't know that we should be governing based on the worst possible outcomes, when keeping the secret could also be dangerous to some.
Yep, sucks either way. And either way, people may be hurt.
It is telling to me that most of the supporters that showed up had no skin in the game. I don't think this specific issue is as cut-and-dry as it appears at first. My mind has certainly changed on it the more I think about it.
About that. How would y'all feel if we flipped it? A conservative or liberal mob from out-of-town trying to influence your child's school board? (Which partly happened here!)
I'm sure you would want to know. So you can either: 1. create an environment for the child so they feel safe talking about it with you or 2. force everyone working at a school to out children who aren't ready with potentially hostile audiences just in case your child isn't comfortable discussing with you. Option 2. is pretty enticing, I guess, zero effort and all the benefit.
I think it is pretty clear where the downvotes are from. The position is basically, "it doesn't matter if another kid gets hurt, that won't happen to mine, and I'd want to know." In terms of setting policy I'd like school districts to instead consider what's best for the vast majority of (ideally all) children.
You don't need to do this. The original comment is still there, as are the arguments. The only things the mods have removed are insults, the civil replies are all there
!Manos@lemm.ee -61 points 11 hours ago
Tried stating a reasonable opinion with questions, got buried so hard I can't respond to the comment without it getting buried and disappearing. Civil discourse anyone? Or is civility only for people you mostly agree with? LOL, this post is blocked so hard I can't even read the replies without them disappearing. I can't even tell what OP said that was out-of-bounds.
This is how we create rightwing nuts. Take a person's reasonable post, beat the shit out of them for some much as having a question, pondering the pros and cons. Nope. Straight to jail.
Put yourself in OP's shoes. "Fuck me. I just said what I felt as a parent, how I might react. And I get hit with a wall of hate and bans?!" How do you think lemmy swayed OP's opinion? Discuss. (You'll get banned or blocked if you do, but grow a pair, state your case.)
I honestly don't know how I feel about this. If my kid (which I do have one) was trying to pass as another gender in school, but not home, I would want to know. It's generally not good for kids to keep big secrets like this from the people looking out for them. That's how they end up getting in to trouble in life.
Yeah, I'd want to know if my child was hiding something so utterly life changing. I hope my kids trust me, but coming out as trans is about as big as it gets.
At the same time, I'm not the kind of parent that wouldn't support my kid through such an issue. I understand it could be dangerous for some kids to be outted to their parents, but I don't know that we should be governing based on the worst possible outcomes, when keeping the secret could also be dangerous to some.
Yep, sucks either way. And either way, people may be hurt.
It is telling to me that most of the supporters that showed up had no skin in the game. I don't think this specific issue is as cut-and-dry as it appears at first. My mind has certainly changed on it the more I think about it.
About that. How would y'all feel if we flipped it? A conservative or liberal mob from out-of-town trying to influence your child's school board? (Which partly happened here!)
I honestly don't know how I feel about this. If my kid (which I do have one) was trying to pass as another gender in school, but not home, I would want to know. It's generally not good for kids to keep big secrets like this from the people looking out for them. That's how they end up getting in to trouble in life.
At the same time, I'm not the kind of parent that wouldn't support my kid through such an issue. I understand it could be dangerous for some kids to be outted to their parents, but I don't know that we should be governing based on the worst possible outcomes, when keeping the secret could also be dangerous to some.
It is telling to me that most of the supporters that showed up had no skin in the game. I don't think this specific issue is as cut-and-dry as it appears at first. My mind has certainly changed on it the more I think about it.
When kids don't trust their parents, there's usually a good reason.
I didn't tell my parents I
likedfucked both boys and girls, they eventually noticed who I was having over overnightI don't think I ever told anyone about the gender dysphoria I felt when I was young, and I'm really glad that if anyone at school discovered that from something I said or did they weren't going to tell my parents. They would have been supportive, but I wasn't sure of myself at all and support might have pushed me too hard in one direction or the other
Absolutely not. This is a hot take that is not well thought out. At least the way I took your statement is that the parents are the reason the kids are hiding it. I.e. they won't be accepting or there is some other notion that the parents are responsible for.
First off, kids in high school are constantly battling for their independence. Their autonomy is their goal almost exclusively until things go wrong. A good parent has to watch out from afar and hope they taught their kid well.
Second, the kid could have all sorts of reasons to hiding this. Maybe it was never talked about before. Maybe when it was they didn't know how to say what they had to say. Kids have a hard time even saying feelings on food choices when they aren't aware of the vocabulary for those feelings. They just flat out don't know what they are feeling until they have a meltdown and talk about it.
Third, the parents aren't always in the way. Kids don't give parents enough of a chance to rise to the occasion without giving them a chance. Saying they acted this way or that way is not fair and not at all what a good relationship is about. They gotta give their parents a shot to handle it or all of it is speculation.
Many LGBT youth are hiding that fact from their parents because those parents will either throw them out of the house, send them to reeducation camp, or physicallt abuse them for coming out.
This policy is trying to hurt children.
I live in this school district and was part of the group of parents that got these board members recalled. The issue is forcing educators to report it instead of trusting them to do the right thing. If they have a good relationship with the parents and know it's for the best to tell them what is happening with their student, or if they suspect there's something going on in the home where it's better for the student to keep their confidence, the decision should be up to the teacher to do what is right. These are not black and white situations. Also, regardless of anyone's opinion on the issue, the state had already made a policy, so these board members knowingly made a political decision that cost the district millions of dollars to defend in court, knowing they would lose. They didn't care, because they have no kids in the schools here. They were political activists using our kids as pawns. To the curb with that trash.
The danger to trans kids can't be understated more in your comment. Outing a kid to parents against their transition is a good way to get them shunned and bullied to homelessness and/or death. Unsupported and bullied kids have astronomically higher rate of suicide, homelessness, and just plain chances of being murdered like that Oklahoma trans teenager recently.
Teachers can support a kid in coming out to their parents or out the kid to their parents based on their judgement rather than being required to do so. Your child has a right to privacy as well, depending on age and whether the secret harms others. Being trans at the point where they want to change their name is usually a high-school thing and being trans isn't harming anyone.
Don't be a shitty parent and you don't have to worry about this. That's really how easy it is on this specific topic.
If your kid feels safer talking to their teacher about their identity than they do their own parents, then you have absolutely failed as a parent.
I think you and others who thought the policy was a good idea are missing the key reason why it isn't.
The rule forced schools to notify parents regardless of the circumstances. It did not say that parents must not be notified under any circumstances. That's a massive difference.
As you said, this is not a cut and dry issue. If a school deems that a trans student's health and safety are in danger and that the parents should be notified, then they can make the decision to do so. However, under most circumstances, if the parents are not already aware that their child is changing their gender identity then there is a good reason for that.
These situations are highly sensitive and must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis - the policy destroyed all that and put many students in danger unnecessarily by completely removing all nuance from the situation.
I said this further down the thread, but demanding teachers put the feelings of some parents above the wellbeing of the most vulnerable kids by not letting them use their own judgment to do what's best for each kid on a case by case basis isn't the right way to go about this.
The odds of a kid being out at school but not at home are incredibly unlikely, in my opinion. With their friends would be one thing, but to be publicly out without their parents knowing? Makes no sense, especially with the chances of bullying or somebody else just snitching (intentionally or by accident) to their parents. I could see kids confiding in a school counselor or a teacher that they trust, but the way it's worded is all about making trans kids afraid and nothing more. Under this mandate, if your kid asks a teacher to call them Bob instead of Robert, the school is required to tell you. The cruelty was and continues to be the point for these people.
Someone involved in this stuff should tip off the teenagers to the gratuitous malicious compliance that's sitting right there (preferably with a teacher who's in on it).
Just every day, whole classes should request to go by a different name. Then, the school is compelled to annoy the parents over teenage bullshit. And when the angry parents are pissed that they are getting spammed by the school, all the school can say is "we can't change the rules, the current school board forces us to do this".
Try to remember when you were a kid. Would you want your teacher ratting you out to your parents for something personal and harmless, and that you aren't ready to talk about with your parents?
How would you have felt? About the teacher, the school, your parents? Do you think this would have negatively affected your school work, social life, and home life?
I'd guess the rule isn't really for you though.
If a kid would rather tell a thousand other people that they're trans and keep it a secret from a parent, it's not really someone that has a right to know. And in all honestly not really the sort of person that should be in charge of children at all.
I agree with you. I would be very upset if my public school didn't report major changes to me.
I would also feel like a failure of having open communication with my son if I didn't know something like that and he wasn't confident in telling me or didn't feel safe and loved.
If he was cutting himself and they didn't tell me, I could attempt to press charges. I know people will not view self harm and identity the same thought because of sigma.
I wish we could create an environment where there's no need to protect a kid's identity issues because of ridicule and torment. There's failures all around here.