<p class="p1">If there’s one thing you don’t expect to see at a routine school board meeting, it’s communist protestors with megaphones &#8211; but that&#8217;s exactly what happened earlier this month in Orange County, CA.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">On September 7th, protestors with the Revolutionary Communist Party disrupted a school board meeting as officials prepared to vote on a new policy that would require staff to notify parents when their child shows signs of being transgender (videos linked at end of article).</p>
<p class="p1">The policy applies to children who ask to be treated as a gender that does not match their biological sex, request to use a different name/pronoun, express feelings of gender dysphoria, or ask to participate in a sport that is not allowed due to their biological sex.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">“As [someone in education], I hold and hide nothing from the parents of my students,” argued Board Member Angie Rumsey. “The relationship begins with a realization that, as the teacher, I am not going to hide anything or keep information from a parent.”</p>
<p class="p1">I can understand why a school teacher or counselor would feel obligated to let parents know if their child was acting a certain way; however, school is historically a place where children have the opportunity to express themselves without being observed by their parents.</p>
<p class="p1">From the perspective of a student, I would feel betrayed if my school shared information with my parents that I was not ready to share with them myself. I would also feel embarrassed if the “tomboy” behavior I displayed as an athletic young woman was interpreted as gender dysphoric.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">From the perspective of a parent, I would want my child to feel comfortable speaking to me about anything &#8211; even something as disruptive as transgender identity &#8211; and would feel betrayed if this information came to me from my child’s teacher instead of my child. <b>But that does not mean I would not want to know about it.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b></p>
<p class="p1">According to the Orange Unified School Board, the parental notification policy is designed to “promote communication and positive relationships with parents” and to “bring the parent or guardian into the decision-making process for mental health and social-emotional issues of their children” in order to “prevent or reduce potential instances of self-harm.”</p>
<p class="p1">To protect students, the policy includes the caveat that school counselors are not required to divulge information to parents if they believe this information could put the child in danger.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">Before the school board meeting devolved into a screaming match, one communist protestor described the policy as “part of a larger Christian fascist movement with a theocratic agenda of ruling through open White supremacy, male supremacy, and open violence and terror… these fascists &#8211; at the school boards, in the courts, and throughout society &#8211; are moving to steal elections they lose or resort to outright violence if necessary to impose this agenda.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">Ironically, another communist protestor bragged about being arrested and urged her colleagues towards violence. “We’re getting organized for a real revolution to get rid of the system,” she said. “Any kind of trying to negotiate with any of these fascists in the room, on the board, is illegitimate.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">Before being ushered away by security guards, she called on anyone “with humanity for LGBTQ people [to] get ready for a revolution to overthrow this whole system that gave birth to this White supremacy and this male supremacy.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">Detractors not associated with the communist group argued the policy increases the chances that a transgender student will b<span class="s1">e bullied at school, be</span><span class="s1"> rejected by their family, h</span><span class="s1">urt themselves/commit suicide, and l</span><span class="s1">ose trust in the education system.</span></p>
<p class="p1">The policy also places undue burden on teachers, reads a letter from the Orange Unified Educators Association: “In addition to the legal issues, this policy requires certificated employees to have the appropriate knowledge, training, and time to have communication with students and guardians about sensitive and confidential issues.”</p>
<p class="p1">The parental notification policy was approved unanimously by members of the Orange Unified School Board after more than three hours of public commentary. The only board members who opposed the policy left the meeting in protest before the vote.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p class="p1">“During the chaos, direct threats were made to trustees in the minority and the crowd was getting increasingly aggressive,” complained Board Member Andrea Yamasaki in a text after she walked out of the meeting. “There was no crowd control and I felt that the personal safety of my colleagues and myself was compromised.”<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p>Orange Unified is the sixth school district in California to pass this policy and one is already being sued by California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Bonta, a Democrat, joins the communists in viewing the policy as a “violation of the rights, privacy, and lives of LGBTQ youth by outing them against their will.”</p>
<p class="p1">Speaking to reporters, Bonta added, “I have said it before and I will say it again: We will not tolerate any policy that perpetuates discrimination, harassment, or exclusion within our educational institutions.”</p>
<p>Schools began to take on this issue after a proposal introduced by Republican California Assemblymember Bill Essayli was denied a hearing at the state level in April 2023.</p>
<p class="p1">“In a state like California…a blue state, it becomes really the only option for these kinds of policies and actions to be occurring,” explains Julie Marsh, a Professor of Education who attended the board meeting. “And it shows us that we’re not immune.”</p>
<p class="p1">Marsh added that the situation in Orange County is a “wake-up call for folks to just pay a little bit more attention to school boards.”</p>
<p><strong>Sources:</strong></p>
<p>Videos of the communists speaking at the board meeting: <a href="https://twitter.com/JZachreson/status/1699988196023803955?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1699988196023803955%7Ctwgr%5Ef884423d949778e6244888995cd4eda322391eab%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fmedia%2Fcommunists-demand-end-christian-fascism-chaotic-school-board-meeting-parental-notification-policy">here</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/JZachreson/status/1699990001315172625?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1699990001315172625%7Ctwgr%5Ef884423d949778e6244888995cd4eda322391eab%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fmedia%2Fcommunists-demand-end-christian-fascism-chaotic-school-board-meeting-parental-notification-policy">here</a>.</p>
<p class="p1"><a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/communists-demand-end-christian-fascism-chaotic-school-board-meeting-parental-notification-policy">Communists demand end to ‘Christian fascism’ at chaotic school board meeting over parental notification policy<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></a></p>
<p class="p1"><a href="https://edsource.org/2023/orange-unified-becomes-sixth-california-district-to-adopt-transgender-parental-notification-policy/697122">Orange Unified becomes sixth California district to adopt transgender parental notification policy<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></a></p>
<p class="p1"><a href="https://voiceofoc.org/2023/09/an-oc-school-district-adopts-transgender-notification-state-ag-issues-legal-threat/">An OC School District Adopts Transgender Notification; State AG Issues Legal Threat</a></p>

Parental Rights – Communists demand end to ‘Christian fascism’
