By Michael Hernandez
VENTURA—The County Office of Education is leading the charge of California Safe Schools Coalition in fully adopting AB537 (the California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000) and incorporating the provisions that prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in California public schools and non-religious private schools that receive state funding.
While there are school districts such as Oakland, Palm Springs and San Francisco that are members of the California Safe Schools Coalition—the only county (out of 58) that is a member of the California Safe Schools Coalition is Ventura County Office of Education.
Making up some of the 11 steering committee organizations are: Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere (COLAGE); Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN); Gay-Straight Alliance Network; L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center; Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); and the California Teachers Association.
The Question & Answer Guide for California Schools Officials & Administrators published by the California Safe Schools Coalition states that “state law explicitly provides that ‘instruction or materials that discuss gender, sexual orientation…is not subject to the parent notice and opt out laws…because California law does not support a broad parental veto regarding the contents of public-school instruction.”
The Ventura County Board of Education is represented by:
- Rachel Ulrich (Area 1: Ventura, Saticoy, Ojai Riverpark, Northwest Oxnard);
- President Mike Teasdale (Area 2: Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Westlake Village, Somis, and portions of the Oxnard Plain);
- Dr. Mark Lisager (Area 3: Camarillo Port Hueneme, East Oxnard Plan, Santa Paul, Fillmore and Piru);
- Vice President Rob Collins (Area 4: Moorpark, Simi Valley, Santa Susana Knolls Box Canyon, and Tierra Rejada Valley); and
- Dr Ramon Flores (Area 5: Oxnard, Oxnard hoes, Mandalay Bay, Hollywood Beach, Colonia, Channel Island Harbor, and El Rio).
Board Members from Areas 1, 2, and 4 have their terms end in 2022 while Areas 3 and 5 remain in office until 2024.
The Ventura County Board of Education meetings are held from 6-9 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month in the Board Room, 5100 Adolfo Road, Camarillo. Their next meeting is on April 26.
Dr. Cesar Morales was selected the new Ventura County Superintendent of Schools unanimously by the Ventura Board of Education on March 29 and was sworn-in on April 16. See Citizens Journal link to this story: https://www.citizensjournal.us/dr-cesar-morales-sworn-in-as-ventura-county-superintendent-of-schools-2/
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families—is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor now living in Redding (Shasta County). He worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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Assuming thst area 2 also includes the wokies that run the vaunted and carbon-positive Oak Park Unified School System and Indoctrination program???
Loved the way they jacked up everyone’s property taxes to pay for four special assessment bonds and then threw up solar panels on all their schools in a spasmodic virtue-signaling exercise…