Recall Bid Aimed at Board of Education

A Ventura minister is spearheading an effort to recall three members of the Ventura County Board of Education, saying the conservative majority represents a “dangerous threat to democratic institutions.”

The Rev. Richard Weston-Jones of the Unitarian Universalist Church announced Wednesday that a coalition of county citizens and groups will meet April 17 to discuss strategy for recalling trustees Wendy Larner, Marty Bates and Angela N. Miller.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the church on Foothill Road in Ventura.

Weston-Jones declined to specify who else is involved, but Neil Demers-Grey of the Unity Pride Coalition said his group would join the effort. Unity Pride advocates for the civil rights of people infected with HIV or AIDS.

Many people were angered by the board’s vote this week to exclude Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care speakers from sex-education workshops, Weston-Jones said. They are concerned that if the trio is not stopped now, other Christian conservatives will be encouraged to move onto other local governing boards, he said.

“The Religious Right is far more dangerous than the public realizes,” he said. “They want to capture society and have it run by biblical laws.”

Larner, president of the Board of Education, said she believes any recall effort will be soundly rejected. Most Ventura County residents share her views and support the action the board has taken, Larner said Wednesday.

She added that she has received several calls of support for the board’s 3-2 vote Monday to exclude Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care from teacher-training workshops sponsored by the county superintendent of schools’ office.

Any recall effort will be difficult, Weston-Jones conceded, because the targeted trustees are elected from three separate districts.

That means recall organizers may have to conduct three separate campaigns, including gathering about 15,000 signatures in three different regions, to qualify the measure for the ballot, Weston-Jones said.

Miller represents Area 1, which includes Ventura and north Oxnard; Bates’ Area 2 district includes the Conejo Valley, the Santa Rosa Valley and the Oxnard Plain; and Larner’s Area 3 district includes Ojai, Camarillo, Fillmore and Santa Paula.

The signatures must be gathered within 160 days after a notice of recall is filed, officials said.