Friend,
The MAGA Far Right, led by three extremist board members, has infiltrated the school system in Temecula, a small quiet suburb in southern California. They are attacking students’ freedom to learn and depriving our children of the true history of our nation by taking actions that perpetuate the same lies and fearmongering about K-12 classrooms we see taking place across the nation.
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It all started last December, when three newly-elected conservative board members took office and – on the very same day – passed a resolution condemning critical race theory (which wasn’t being taught in their classrooms). They then spent thousands of dollars to hire a consultant to lecture teachers against critical race theory and banned a history curriculum that included California LGBTQ+ rights leader Harvey Milk. And just this past June, they fired the well-liked and highly regarded school superintendent for not kowtowing to their extremist agenda.
“Our schools are not ideological battlegrounds. They’re not platforms for religious evangelism. These are institutions for learning and growth.”
– Alex Douvas, parent of two kids in the Temecula school district
These extremely troubling developments are happening in the same year that the American Library Association (ALA) announced 1,269 demands nationwide to censor library books–a record-high number, nearly doubling demands from the previous year. ALA says of those, the vast majority were written by or about people of color or the LGBTQ+ community. [1]
It’s clear the Far Right has an agenda to not only impose their values in our school systems but to erase the existence of communities of color and LGBTQ+ people. That’s a dangerous game to play. Fortunately, we have brave students, teachers, parents, and truth seekers, like you, who will fight for what’s right.
With your support, we’ve mobilized our Grandparents For Truth network to empower local parents, and we will be on the ground in the weeks ahead: recruiting volunteers and collecting signatures to support the recall effort. We are in this for the long run in Temecula and around the nation. Join us by making a gift to support efforts to recall Temecula’s ultra-conservative school board members and our ongoing anti-censorship work >>
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People For has a long history of fighting censorship and book bans. We’ve seen how censorship has been used as a tool for those in power to enact violence. It’s antithetical to our values and to the American Way. If we don’t act now for school boards in places like Temecula, your local school system could be next – and we simply can’t let that happen.
As always, thank you for being in this fight with us.
Svante Myrick
President
People For the American Way
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[1] "Keep Fighting Back Against Censorship" People For Blog, 4/28/23
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