One California school board president is fighting back against the state's superintendent over the official's scrutiny surrounding a pro-parent gender policy in the classroom.
The Chino Valley Unified School Board held a meeting last week addressing the new policy, which requires parental notification if a student expresses a desire to be identified or treated as a gender different from their biological sex, intends to use the bathroom and athletic facilities of the opposite sex, seeks a pronoun or name change, or if there are mental health concerns with the child.
Chino Valley Unified School Board President Sonja Shaw accused California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond of trying to "pervert children" shortly before he was escorted by police out of the meeting.
"When they continuously make an attack on taking the parents out, and they're pushing things that sexualized children into the classroom, I don't know what else to call it. I feel like I called it in a very nice way, perversion of children," Shaw told 'Fox & Friends First' co-host Todd Piro, Tuesday.
TARGET PARTNERS WITH ORG PUSHING FOR KIDS' GENDERS TO BE SECRETLY CHANGED IN SCHOOLS WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT
Thurmond advocated against the pro-parent policy during the meeting, which ultimately passed on a 4-to-1 vote one day before the meeting.
He said the measure "may fall outside of the laws that respect privacy and safety for our students, but may put our students at risk because they may not be in homes where they can be seen."
Eventually, he was escorted out after refusing to leave when his time at the mic was up.
California mother Jennifer Kennedy, Esq., spoke at the heated school board meeting, pushing back on critics' notions that the policy stems from an "anti-gay" or "anti-trans" sentiment.
"Unfortunately, a lot of people are equating it to anti-gay hate, which it isn't," Kennedy told ‘Fox & Friends First’ on Tuesday. "This is a common-sense move to let parents know about something important that's going on, a behavioral flag with their kids at school."
"It's absolutely something parents need to know if their child is gender-identifying on campus," she continued.
Kennedy went on to explain her opposition to school officials keeping "secrets" from parents, maintaining that the policy has nothing to do with criticism of the LGBTQ+ community.
"Absolutely not anti-gay, not anti-trans, and in fact, that's what you heard at the meeting with Sonja the other day. We're not opposed to people and their choices were opposed to children colluding with people at school, with adults at school, who are charged with their education and keeping things secret from parents," Kennedy said. "We're opposed to [keeping] secrets from parents."
Thurmond spoke out after the incident, calling the parents critical of his backlash "extremists" for their stance advocating more parental involvement in the classroom.
"I went to a school board meeting to stand up for LGBTQ+ students who invited me to join them as they spoke out against a radical new policy that threatens their safety. When done speaking, the board president verbally attacked me and instructed the police to remove me," he said.
"I don’t mind being thrown out of a board meeting by extremists. I can take the heat — it’s part of the job. What I can’t accept is the mistreatment of vulnerable students whose privacy is being taken away," he added.
Shaw, who accused Thurmond of trying to "pervert children" during the meeting, said he was the one who was extreme, citing his support of a policy that would limit parental involvement within gender-based discussions.
"We're putting an exact threat to what the agenda is, and that's the narrative that's being pinned," Shaw told Piro. "Tony Thurmond said it himself. He called us extremists for wanting to involve the parents. To me, the extremist is him. I don't think anything is extreme about wanting to involve a parent."
"The parent has a fundamental right to be a part of their children's upbringing," she continued. "Unless they're deemed unfit, to say that they are unfit, is a very dangerous and extreme thing."
Fox News' Hannah Grossman, Ashley Carnahan and Kendall Tietz contributed to this report.
