A school district in southern California will be fined $1.5 million after rejecting a curriculum that included Harvey Milk, the pioneering gay rights leader whom the school board’s president has called a “pedophile”.
According to Guardian UK, California governor Gavin Newsom, on Wednesday announced that his office will send textbooks to the Temecula school district that include Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in the state, as well as fine the district $1.5m for failing to “adopt an updated social studies curriculum”.
“California will ensure students in Temecula begin the school year with access to materials reviewed by parents and recommended by teachers across the district,” Newsom said in a statement.
“After we deliver the textbooks into the hands of students and their parents, the state will deliver the bill to the school board for its decision to willfully violate the law, subvert the will of parents, and force children to use an out-of-print textbook from 17 years ago.”
The Temecula Valley unified school district, which oversees about 28,000 students in Riverside County, has been at the centre of a growing controversy over its approach to LGBTQ+, diversity and inclusion issues.
In May, the district school board president, Joseph Komrosky, said while discussing an elementary social science curriculum that included Milk: “My question is, why even mention a pedophile?”
Komrosky and two other school board members then struck down the social science curriculum in a 3-2 vote, leaving the district without a textbook for the coming year.
His comments caught the attention of Newsom, who said in June, “An offensive statement from an ignorant person. This isn’t Texas or Florida.
“In the Golden State, our kids have the freedom to learn.”
This week the board saw a marathon nine-hour meeting in which some parents voiced support for the conservative officials, describing Newsom as a tyrant.
A teacher was removed after calling a conservative board member a “homophobe”.
At the meeting, Danny Gonzalez, a conservative board member, said he did not support teaching students about the gay liberation movement and that the curriculum would promote pedophilia, the Los Angeles Times reported.