The Temecula Valley Unified School District board approved the social studies curriculum it previously rejected twice over concerns about “inappropriate” material—but with the recommendation that schools substitute certain material with that which is “age-appropriate.”
The board voted to approve “Social Studies Alive,” a state-approved K–5 social studies curriculum during a special meeting called July 21 by board President Joseph Komrosky.
Mr. Komrosky had previously led the board’s conservative majority to reject the curriculum in May—and then again in July—over concerns about its inclusion of LGBT activist and politician Harvey Milk, whom Mr. Komrosky called a “pedophile” based on reports that Milk, then 33, had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male.
Mr. Komrosky’s comment gained attention from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who threatened to send copies of the curriculum to Temecula students and to enact legislation that would fine the district $1.5 million if the board didn’t approve the textbook.
The board president said the vote wasn’t in response to Mr. Newsom’s threats but to avoid a costly lawsuit.
“Gov. Newsom, I act independently and authoritatively from you,” he said during the July 21 meeting. “If we do not provide the curriculum—I want everybody to hear this—we will literally be sued.”
The board president also said the board carefully reviewed the curriculum to ensure that the content is age-appropriate—and included a recommendation that schools substitute the material referencing Milk with an “age-appropriate curriculum” that complies with state and federal law and “is also consistent with the board’s commitment to exclude sexualized topics of instruction from elementary school grade levels.”
“We are working to make sure that the content delivered to our students is appropriate for our students at the age and grade level presented,” Mr. Komrosky said in a July 22 statement. “We also believe that some topics are best left for parents to first introduce to their elementary school age children rather than being discussed by a teacher in a classroom.”
In response to the curriculum’s approval, Mr. Newsom said, “Fortunately, now students will receive the basic materials needed to learn.”
However, the governor called for a civil rights investigation into the district.
“But this vote lays bare the true motives of those who opposed this curriculum,” he said in a July 21 statement. “This has never been about parents’ rights. ... This is about extremists’ desire to control information and censor the materials used to teach our children. ... Hate doesn’t belong in our classrooms and because of the board majority’s antics, Temecula has a civil rights investigation to answer for.”
The district has spent the year searching for an updated social studies curriculum as its current social studies curriculum, adopted in 2006, doesn’t comply with updated state educational frameworks or California’s 2011 FAIR Education Act, which requires schools to include historical LGBT and minority figures in social studies lessons.
After the board rejected the curriculum the first time, the governor threatened to send copies of it to Temecula students and to enact legislation that would fine the district if the board didn’t approve it.
“We’re going to purchase the book for these students, the same one that hundreds of thousands of kids are already using. If these extremist school board members won’t do their job, we will, and fine them for their incompetence,” Mr. Newsom said in a July 13 Twitter post.
He also claimed in the statement that Temecula’s students would begin the school year on Aug. 14 without enough social studies textbooks for every student “because of the school board’s decision to reject a widely used social studies curriculum.”
The governor also said in the same statement that he would partner with lawmakers to pass Assembly Bill 1078 to prohibit local school boards from excluding books that contain “diverse perspectives.”
However, without the passage of the bill, there are currently no legal grounds for Mr. Newsom to fine the district, the state’s top education official confirmed on July 20.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said the anticipated passing of the bill would allow the state to intervene in Temecula’s situation. The bill contains an urgency clause for it to take effect immediately should it pass the Legislature, according to Mr. Thurmond.
“Assembly Bill 1078 would establish this process, and that bill is being heard in the Legislature, and it does have an urgency clause, so we’re waiting to see what happens with that bill,” Mr. Thurmond told The Epoch Times at an unrelated press conference in Chino, California, July 20. “We’re currently investigating the Temecula Valley Unified School District based on complaints from students about ... LGBTQ+ student needs.”
The bill will be heard in the state Senate Appropriations Committee after lawmakers meet again in August after the summer recess.
