In July of 2023, the Pomonan reported that California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond stood before the Chino Valley Unified School District Board telling them that he opposed their plan to require staff and teachers to provide parents and caregivers with changes in their students’ gender Identification. He told them that this mandate would violate student rights for their safety and privacy, that based on research, such a ruling would place them in harms’ way.

Even before Superintendent Thurmond was able to return his seat CVUSD’s Board President Sonja Shaw began haranguing him from the dais:

“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 Superintendent Thurmond returned to the podium and said:

“May I have - as a Point of Order, as the Board President . . .” before CVUSD President Shaw interrupted him, shouting and talking fast:

“No, this is not your meeting, Tony Thurmond. 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.”

Now, the very same CVUSD Board President Sonja Shaw has recently announced her plans to run for the position of California State Superintendent of Public Instruction. In the interim, the Chino Valley School Board President Shaw led CVUSD to become the first district in the state to pass a parental notification policy for transgender students. In response, state lawmakers passed a bill prohibiting such so-called “trans outing” policies.

Board President Shaw is associated with Calvary Chapel, a large church in Chino Hills that has taken an active role in recruiting and endorsing conservative candidates for local office. In the nearby community of Claremont, a Calvary Chapel recruited candidate, Mark Reynoso, recently lost his bid in November for Claremont USD’s Board by a slim margin.

Superintendent Thurmond has held his State Superintendent’s position since 2019 and is currently in his second term. He is running for governor in 2026, leaving the schools chief position wide open.

Stay tuned . . .

Pamela Casey Nagler, Pomona-born, is an independent scholar, currently conducting research on California’s indigenous people, focusing on the Spanish, Russian, Mexican and US invasions between 1769 and the 1860s. The point of studying this history is to tell us how we got here from there.