If voters want to know what kind of president California Governor Gavin Newsom might be, look no further than his menacing behavior toward parents in his own state.
Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom threatened the Temecula Valley Unified School District with a $1.5 million fine and another $1.6 million fee to purchase and ship textbooks to schools as part of the state sanctioned social studies program in the district that the school board rejected by a 3-2 vote.
Parents believed the content, which included gay right’s activist Harvey Milk, was too sexualized for elementary school kids.
Newsom also threatened the school district with a civil rights investigation launched by the state’s attorney general to probe why the educational materials were initially refuted.
The members of the board who rejected the teachings are accused of violating the 2011 FAIR Education Act that requires students to get instruction about “the role and contributions” of LGBTQ+ people, as well as those of different ethnicities, cultures, and disabilities.
By Friday, the board reversed their decision and approved the curriculum.
Joseph Komrosky, the president of the school board, said the vote was not in response to Newsom’s threat, but rather to avoid a lawsuit.
“Governor Newsom, I act independently and authoritatively from you. I am a sovereign citizen in the United States of America,” Komrosky said during Friday’s meeting. “If we do not provide curriculum – I want everybody to hear this – we will literally be sued.”
Gavin Newsom, the Bully
Jen Wiersma spoke about the board’s decision to The Morning Wire news podcast. “There just was collusion in the entire process that went from the Governor’s office to the attorney general out to our Riverside County Board of Ed. and we felt boxed in.”
While members of the board said Newsom’s behavior amounted to nothing more than totalitarian bullying, Newsom claimed their reversal “exposed their true motives.”
He also suggested the board members are demagogues who “whitewash history,” censor books, and perpetuate prejudice and because of the school board members “antics, Temecula has a civil rights investigation to answer for.”
Wiersma responded to Newsom’s claims.
“The Governor’s statements are outrageous. It has been a surreal thing for me to live through this with the amount of threats and intimidation … the bullying that’s gone on whether it’s monetarily through a fine, or a lawsuit, and the name calling. It’s egregious.”
Whose Children?
The tyrant of California asserted, “This has never been about parents’ rights. This is about extremists’ desire to control information and censor the materials used to teach our children.”
There it is again. That phrase that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. The one that both Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and handfuls of progressives continue to use when discussing education or childcare policy – our children.
Someone needs to remind these politicians that children do not belong to the state – they belong to their parents and ultimately, it is parents that decide what values and morals their children should be learning. Not Gavin Newsom, not the state of California, and certainly not the federal government.
Wiersma emphasized this point in her interview. “Local authority is the way our founders set up this country. Individual communities should be able to speak into things without a governor tossing out the power of his office.”
But tyrants do not have much concern for the Founding Fathers or how they fiercely debated to devise a federalist system to protect American citizens from the very abuses of power Newsom exerts on an almost daily basis in California.
For anyone doubting whether or not the state has an objective for your children, believe it. If the government controls your child’s education, they control the future of this country. If Gavin Newsom becomes president, it won’t be a pretty one.
Jennifer Galardi is the politics and culture editor for 19FortyFive.com. She has a Master’s in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and produces and hosts the podcast Connection with conversations that address health, culture, politics and policy. In a previous life, she wrote for publications in the health, fitness, and nutrition space. In addition, her pieces have been published in the Epoch Times and Pepperdine Policy Review.
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