By Julian Lucas
Published 7/24/2023 8:24 Am PST

Chino, CA— PRESS CONFERENCE - JULY 21, 2023 - California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, outside of the Chino Valley Unified School District Boardroom prior to the CVUSD Board’s vote mandating that staff and teachers provide parents and caregivers of any changes in  their student’ gender identification.

On July 21, Superintendent Tony Thurmond addressed the CVUSD Board during his one minute time allotted during the public comment section of the meeting. He told them that he opposes the District’s proposal because he believes it  violates student rights for safety and privacy. Returning to his seat, CVUSD school board President Sonja Shaw began heckling him, at various times raising her voice and shouting. She began,

“Tony Thurmond, I appreciate you being here - tremendously - but here is the problem -we are here because of people like you. You are in Sacramento proposing things that (raises voice) PERVERT CHILDREN. You had a chance to come and talk to me, Tony. By all means - you had a chance to talk with me. Why was it so important for you to walk with my opponent? YOU are the very reason why we are in this.” 

At this point, Tony Thurmond returned to the  podium, saying, “May I have - as a Point of Order, as the Board President . . .”, but the CVUSD President interrupted him, shouting,  talking fast: “ No, this is not your meeting. You can have a seat. Because if I did that to you in Sacramento, you would not accept it. Please sit. . . You are not going to blackmail us. You have already sent us a blackmailing letter on previous . . . You will not bully us here in Chino! Please sit.”

It is against Robert’s Rules of Order for elected school officials to engage with public speakers in any substantive way during the public comment portion of the meeting.

After he was ‘forcibly removed’ from District chambers, Thurmond  held a press conference outside of the District  chambers where he fielded questions from reporters and members of the public. Reporters asked him about what happened during the meeting, three members of the public asked questions relating to their support of the opinions and actions of the CVUSD Board along with their support of  the recent opinions and actions of the Temecula Valley USD Board who recently voted to refuse to teach state-approved LGBTQ+ history lessons.

The CVUSD Board ended up voting 4-1 to approve a “parental notification” system that would require school officials to alert parents if a student requests to use “a name or pronoun other than those listed on the student’s birth certificate” or other official records, and to notify parents if their child requests to use bathrooms that “do not align with the gender stated” on their records.

Julian Lucas, is a photographer, a purveyor of books, and writer in training, but mostly a photographer, but don’t ever ask him to take photos of events. Julian is also the owner and founder of Mirrored Society Book Shop.