Letters to the Editor: Anti-trans Murrieta school board sounds a lot like racist Southern leaders in the 1950s

To the editor: In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in Brown vs. Board of Education that it was unconstitutional for public schools to segregate students by race. ("Murrieta Valley board defies California, will keep policy to tell parents about LGBTQ+ transitioning," April 19)

So how did many districts that had to desegregate their schools react? Instead of following the law, many officials put on a decades-long resistance to this well-thought-out decision.

I thought of these actions when I read the comment by a member of the Murrieta Valley Board of Education explaining why that district is defying a state order not to enforce its parental notification rule for transgender students. In language hearkening back to the racist leaders in the South, he said, "We have a right as a board to defy a dictatorial governor and bureaucracy."

I was an elected board member of a community college district for 20 years. I always recognized that our authority was not absolute and took a back seat to rules and regulations of superior bodies. The Murrieta Valley school board must submit to the authority of the California Department of Education.

Donald L. Singer, Cardiff

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To the editor: The Murrieta school board is hereby put on notice.

At the first instance of an unceremoniously outed trans youth being banished from their home, held up to ridicule or, worse, harmed either at their own hand or that of others, the blame will be placed directly at the feet of those board members who have demonstrated that the last refuge of fear is ignorance.

Bill Waxman, Simi Valley

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.