During a Tuesday night meeting, the Temecula Valley Unified School District voted to ban the doctrine and implementation of Critical Race Theory (CRT) from the district's curriculum.
The vote follows the election of three conservative candidates — Joseph Komrosky, Danny Gonzalez, and Jen Wiersma — who were sworn in at the beginning of Tuesday's meeting. The candidates were previously endorsed by the Inland Empire Family PAC.
Komrosky, who originally proposed the resolution, was also elected school board President.
The measure to ban the implementation of CRT passed 3-2 with Allison Barclay and Steven Schwartz dissenting.
"All students deserve a high-quality education and experience in the Temecula Valley Unified School District [TVUSD]," wrote the school district in the resolution, noting nothing within the statute would require staff members to violate local, state or federal law. "The TVUSD values all students, respects diversity, celebrates the contributions of all, and encourages culturally relevant and inclusive teaching practices."
"The TVUSD further believes that the diversity that exists among the District's community of students, staff, parents, guardians, and community members is an asset to be honored and valued," the resolution continued. "TVUSD believes that people should 'not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character' (Dr. Martin Luther King, 1963)."
"The TVUSD desires to uplift and unite students by not imposing the responsibility of historical transgressions in the past and instead will engage students of all cultures in age-appropriate critical thinking that helps students navigate the past, present, and future," read the resolution. "Racism has no place in American society and especially not in the [TVUSD]."
The board defined CRT in regards to their resolution:[CRT] is an ideology based on false assumptions about the United States of America and its population. The definitional foundation of [CRT] involving an artificial distortion of the traditional definition of "racism" is fatally flawed [and] is a divisive ideology that assigns moral fault to individuals solely on the basis of an individual's race and, therefore is itself a racist ideology. [CRT] assigns generational guilt and racial guilt for conduct and policies that are long in the past [and] violates the fundamental principle of equal protection under the law. [CRT] views social problems primarily as racial problems and, thus, detracts from analysis of underlying socio-economic causes of social problems.
The Board of Trustees noted the District has the legal authority to determine its curriculum within legal parameters, further citing neither the United States nor the state of California requires the implementation of CRT in schools.
"[CRT] is rejected and will not constitute the basis for any instruction in the TVUSD," the resolution read, citing specific elements prohibited from being taught including defining racism as "racial prejudice plus power," which broadly suggests individuals in ethnic minorities cannot be "racist" because "they do not control society."
The resolution also prevents teaching the suggestion of racism being "ordinary," or "the usual way society does business," along with the concept of "interest convergence," and "material determinism" which proposes efforts to abandon "racist policies" are relevant to the "self-interest of the oppressor class."
Instructors in the district are prohibited from teaching a person's "inherent" racism whether conscious or unconscious, among other doctrines of CRT.
"A lot has been said tonight," said Komrosky, per the Press-Enterprise. "I’m here to keep a campaign promise. I have knocked on thousands of doors, talked to thousands of parents and educators … I’m here to honor the majority of the voters in my trustee area, the constituents that put me here."
