An East County school district is under scrutiny after erasing mentions of LGBTQ+ education from its sex-ed curriculum. The State Board of Education says that's illegal.
Mark Reagles leads the Cajon Valley Union School District's classified employees union and has worked for the district for about 18 years. He told NBC 7 that he filed this complaint because the inclusive culture that his members have known and loved for so long is at risk.
Reagles said he noticed a shift in the district’s dynamic when its board of trustees changed last January.
“They forced the district to create their own sex ed and not follow the state's mandated programs,” Reagles said.
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CVUSD board president Jim Miller wanted to remove mentions of LGBTQIA+ to make the statement “more palatable and proper for our community.”
“I was kind of flabbergasted when I read that because they've always been supportive of inclusiveness,” Reagles said.
Since then, union members have reported discrimination, including a lot of students questioning their sexuality but not being allowed to discuss it in the curriculum’s lessons.
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“People are afraid,” Reagles said. “People, you know, they’re afraid of retaliation to be able to speak out.”
By December, Reagles decided to file a formal complaint with the Board of Education, claiming the district’s sex ed didn’t follow the education code, which led to discrimination against students.
The Board of Education found his complaint had merit, and the district’s curriculum was illegal because it failed to recognize that people have different sexual orientations and explore the harm of negative gender stereotypes.
“Someone has to stand up and put a stop to it,” Reagles said. “If we don’t, you know, I'm afraid history is going to repeat itself.”
The Board of Education has given CVUSD three things to do to gain compliance by next June, including proving that the curriculum is inclusive of all genders and sexual expressions and training faculty to carry those lessons through.
In a statement response, Dr. David Miyashiro, secretary to the governing board and superintendent of the Cajon Valley District, wrote:
“The Cajon Valley governing board majority and district leadership hold the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff as our top priority. We are proud of the district wide culture of innovation, inclusiveness and belonging we've created over the last decade and are committed to ensuring that every member of our community knows and feels that #CVYouBelong.
The culture of innovation we've created in Cajon Valley has allowed us to create a new and modern curriculum to prepare our students for the current and future demands of society and the workforce. Our World of Work K-12 career development solution has gained national acclaim and we anticipate our CV Sexual Health Curriculum will also be widely adopted beyond our District."
The district has about a month to challenge the decision from the State Board of Education.
