Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/1509126
" E V E R Y T H I N G I S A D I S T R A C T I O N from educating our students and rebuilding our schools after the pandemic — and that's intentional and by design," says Dr. Heather Chapman, an educator in Orange Unified School District, where extremist school board members are impacting students and families. "is is about sowing distrust in public education." In Orange and communities including Chino Valley and Temecula, educators are rising together with communities to defend their students, schools and each other from extremist board members and their politically driven policies that are diverting district resources and putting safety at risk. At a time when students have so many needs that school board members should focus on supporting, trustees in each of these commu- nities are centering their personal political beliefs and dragging their districts into court and chaos with their egregiously irre- sponsible actions. In what appears to be a coordinated effort by anti-public education groups to sow division in local communities and distrust in educators and public schools, newly elected board members in these districts are bringing the culture wars into classrooms and putting politics above the well-being of stu- dents and educators. "It is our responsibility to push back on those who look to politicize our classrooms and erode our students' freedom to learn," says CTA President David Goldberg, "whether that's extremists' attacks on textbooks that teach truth in history or ensuring the safety of all students in our schools." Often funded by groups outside their communities and fueled by nationwide coverage on cable news networks, these extremist officials have turned school board meetings into contentious affairs and meme fodder that would be laughable if not so dangerous and such a waste of time and resources. Educators fight to protect students from politicized policies that impact learning, safety By Julian Peeples, Ed Sibby and Frank Wells Defending Our Schools and Students Temecula educators picket after the school board refused to adopt textbooks because they included a section on LGBTQ-rights icon Harvey Milk. ABC7 STOP EXTREMISM P r o t e c t O u r S t u de n t s T E A C H T R U T H 24 cta.org Feature