Recall Signatures Submitted

Leaders of a campaign to oust two embattled Westminster School District trustees on Tuesday submitted about 8,500 voter signatures in hopes of putting the recall to a vote.

The Orange County registrar of voters has up to 30 days to validate at least 7,200 of the signatures, the minimum required to call a special recall election.

For months, angry Westminster parents and teachers, as well as the firm of professional signature gatherers they hired, canvassed the city in an effort to remove Judy Ahrens and Blossie Marquez from office.

Their anger stems from the stance Ahrens, Marquez and a third trustee, Helena Rutkowski, took against the wording of a state anti-discrimination law meant to protect transsexuals and others who do not conform to traditional gender roles. Citing their Christian beliefs, the three have said the law is immoral.

Rutkowski, whose term expires in November, is not a target of the recall.

To avoid millions of dollars in state sanctions, the three trustees rewrote the anti-discrimination, but critics still accuse them of putting their personal beliefs above students’ best interests.