Darrell Issa wades into Southern California school board controversy

California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa’s campaign has inserted itself into a fight between a local school board and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom over comments a school board president made accusing LGBTQ civil rights leader Harvey Milk of having been a “pedophile.”

A school board member in Temecula, California, which has been at the center of controversy since its school board president made the statement, shared images of what appear to be a mailer from Issa’s campaign addressing the controversy to her Instagram account.

“Dear Patriot,” the mailer reads, “California’s Governor Gavin Newsom is actually defending pedophiles. In my district, Temecula School Board President Joseph Komrosky had the temerity to ask about including references to a pedophile in official curriculum, ‘Why even mention a pedophile?’ Newsom immediately began to level attacks against Mr. Komrosky with the full force of the state bureaucracy.”

The bottom of the page reads: “Paid for by Darrell Issa for Congress.”

Issa’s campaign did not immediately return a call from the American Independent Foundation seeking to verify the authenticity of the mailer.

Jen Wiersma, the Temecula school board member who shared the mailer, captioned her post: “Thank you, Darrell Issa, for your support and believing in parental rights. The autonomy and local control of elected school boards matter to communities everywhere.”

The mailer appears to mark the first time Issa — or any other member of Congress — has waded into the fight in Temecula. However, the school district has been a focus of state officials for some time now.

During its May 16 meeting, the board of the Temecula Valley Unified School District voted 3-2 to reject a social studies curriculum that included supplemental materials mentioning Milk. During discussion, board president Joseph Komrosky wondered aloud: “My question is, why even mention a pedophile?” Another board member, Danny Gonzalez, also referred to Milk as a pedophile at the meeting.

Milk was the first openly gay elected official in California history. Voted onto the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, he and San Francisco then-mayor George Moscone were assassinated the next year by fellow supervisor Dan White, who had cast the lone vote against an anti-discrimination ordinance Milk had championed.

Conservative censorship of curricula and books that mention LGBTQ people and racial injustice has become increasingly common in school districts across the United States. Recent examples include a Michigan school system that removed books with LGBTQ themes and Florida schools’ efforts to remove any material not vetted by the state to avoid possible criminal penalties associated with the state law known as the “Stop WOKE Act.”

After news of Komrosky’s remarks circulated, Newsom posted a tweet condemning Komrosky and his description of Milk.

Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta later issued a statement urging the Temecula Valley Unified School District’s governing board “to provide information regarding its process and decision-making” related to the rejection of the curriculum.

The statement cites a letter Bonta sent to Komrosky and the district’s superintendent expressing concern over the decision to reject the curriculum. He said the materials were adopted by the state Board of Education, meet state requirements, and were recommended by Temecula Valley Unified staff.

“In the Golden State, our kids have the freedom to learn — and there are consequences for denying that freedom,” Newsom said in the statement. “California is closely watching the actions of malicious actors seeking to ban books, whitewash history, and demonize the LGBTQ+ community in Temecula and across the state. If the law is violated, there will be repercussions.”

The California Department of Education confirmed soon after Newsom and Bonta’s joint statement that it had opened an investigation into the school district, though it was unclear when the investigation began or what the nature of it was.

On July 13, Newsom pledged to send Temecula students the textbooks rejected by the school board anyway, regardless of its objections.

“I want you to know that we’re moving forward, the state is moving forward in purchasing and procuring those social studies books,” Newsom said in an Instagram reel. “Your kids have the freedom to learn, and you have the freedom to access those books, the same books that hundreds of thousands of other kids throughout the state are accessing.”

Newsom is also backing a bill that would fine school districts that don’t provide curriculum materials aligned with state standards and would allow the state to provide them directly to students and force noncompliant districts to pay for them, according to Politico.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.