Letters to the Editor: It wasn’t just LGBTQ+ issues at play in the Orange Unified recall

To the editor: The two Orange Unified School District Board of Education members were recalled for fiscal mismanagement. (“2 Orange school board conservatives ousted by recalls with LGBTQ+ policies at the center,” March 15)

Last year, the district spent big bucks to buy out the rest of the superintendent’s compensation when the Board of Trustees terminated her without cause. It paid for the interim superintendent’s lodging and airline flights as he commuted between Idaho and California.

The trustees allowed one privately run charter school to rent classrooms at half the rent it had charged another operation. They gave another the option to mortgage school district property. These trustees pushed their school privatization agenda at the expense of the district’s financial health.

I am glad these foxes are no longer in charge of watching the hen house.

Carol LaBounty, Orange

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To the editor: In justifying his district’s controversial parental notification policy, ousted Orange Unified school board member Rick Ledesma claimed students identifying as a gender other than their assigned one at birth are being asked to keep a secret from their parents.

This is wrong. Students are asking their school to keep the secret, which empowers students to direct their own lives.

If students want their parents to know, and this must be largely connected to their expectations of parental reaction, they would tell them first.

So, what is the intention of requiring the school to tell parents if it isn’t making a value judgment of the student’s identity, possibly resulting in “corrective action” by parents? Schools should not be expected to make, nor should they willfully take on, such value judgments.

Scott W. Hamre, Cherry Valley, Calif.

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To the editor: In sports, it is said that the greatest players elevate those around them.

It is altogether fitting and proper that former school board members Ledesma and Madison Miner have been recalled, as they sought to marginalize and dishonor LGBTQ+ students, rather than value and advocate for all students.

Bill Waxman, Simi Valley