Group Defends Pair Against Recall Effort

A handful of Ventura County residents announced Thursday they have formed a group to counter a recall campaign being waged against two members of the Ventura County Board of Education.

A member of the Citizens for Accountability in Public Education said they will seek to defeat an effort to remove Wendy Larner of Ojai and Angela N. Miller of Ventura from their elected seats on the board.

“We want to educate the public as to what these two board members really stand for,” said Kathleen Parsa, a Ventura resident. “I think they represent the mainstream.”

The two board members, along with Thousand Oaks businessman Marty Bates, voted in March to suspend the use of Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care speakers at sex-education workshops.

That triggered the recall effort, which organizers said is necessary because Larner and Miller are improperly using their positions to promote a conservative Christian agenda in public education. Opponents of the two formally started their campaign earlier this week by serving notice of the recall on Larner and Miller at a county school board meeting.

Parsa said that CAPE will kick off its campaign with a picnic at Constitution Park in Camarillo on May 21. The picnic, which begins at 2 p.m., is open to anyone interested in helping to fight the recall effort, Parsa said.

The group hopes to inform the public about what Larner and Miller stand for, Parsa said. That includes “back-to-basics education, upholding the California Education Code and leaving instruction in sex to the family.”

About 75% of letters written to the board since its vote have been in favor of the decision, she said.