California School District’s CRT Ban, Transgender Notification Policy Will Stand For Now, Judge Rules

 A California school district's rules on Critical Race Theory and transgender parent notification will remain in place, at least for now, a judge has ruled.

Temecula Valley Unified School District, south of Los Angeles, prohibits schools from teaching certain elements of Critical Race Theory and requires schools to notify parents if their children ask to identify as a new gender. Are.

A group of parents, students, and teachers sued over the policies, seeking a preliminary injunction to stop their implementation.

However, on Friday, Riverside Superior Court Judge Eric Keane denied that request.

The judge rejected the group's claim that the school board's ban on Critical Race Theory curriculum content was vague, pointing out that the policy prohibits specific elements of the ideology.

The judge wrote, "It seems clear to the Court that a person of ordinary intelligence would have a reasonable opportunity of knowing what is prohibited because what is prohibited is specifically set out in the proposal."

The judge also ruled that the district's transgender notification policy "does not explicitly single out transgender or gender-nonconforming students because it applies to any student's request to change their school's official or unofficial records." it occurs."

A lawyer for the plaintiffs said they planned to appeal the verdict "immediately."

“I wasn't really surprised. I think the justice system looked and said, 'Hey, there's nothing strange or ridiculous here,' but I know the trial has to continue and we'll see how things go from here. But I think it's a big win for parents,” said Dan Molina, a father of three students in the district.

The Temecula Valley School District, located south of Los Angeles, serves 28,000 students, the majority of whom are white or Hispanic.

"I do not believe that CRT or any racist ideology is an appropriate educational framework for classroom instruction at the elementary and secondary levels," said Temecula Valley School Board President Joseph Komrowski, one of the board members who voted for the policies. .

Other school districts in California have seen their policies on transgender notification challenged at the state level by Democrats.

Chino Valley Unified School District, just east of Los Angeles, introduced a policy last year requiring schools to tell parents about students' gender transition.

In August, the California Attorney General sued the Chino Valley district over the policy.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is also formally supporting the lawsuit against Temecula Valley School District.

Since then, several other districts in the state have introduced nearly identical policies on transgender parent notifications.

At least one other district in California, Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, has banned instruction on Critical Race Theory.