Protest Targets Temecula Board’s Trans Student Proposal

TEMECULA, CA — Parents and students gathered at Temecula's Day Middle School on Tuesday morning to rally against a proposal to make students seek special accommodations if they don't want to share a bathroom or a locker room with a transgender classmate, according to news reports and footage posted to social media.

Protesters arrived just before 8 a.m. outside the school campus to demand that the Temecula Valley Unified School District board vote no on the policy, which was tabled last week.

On Aug. 26, in a 4-1 vote, the school board shelved two measures that would have created rules for students seeking mental health or religious exemptions from sharing facilities with transgender peers.

One week after that meeting, at least 40 students, some with their parents, rallied against that proposal, which board members will soon deliberate on again, The Press-Enterprise reported.

In footage posted to X, middle school boys at the rally are seen holding signs that read: "Safe spaces for girls" and "Protect a child's right to speak up."

The school district told The Press-Enterprise that it "respects the rights of students and community members to engage in peaceful expression and assembly."

That statement went on to say that California law requires that students “be allowed to participate in sex-segregated programs and have access to facilities consistent with their gender identity. Any revised proposal will take this requirement into account while addressing the concerns raised by students, parents, and the community,” the newspaper reported.

At its next meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 9, the board may consider allowing a broader range of opt-out options for students who don't want to share a facility with "a student of the opposite biological sex."

“It is just a matter of privacy and keeping boys and girls separated,” district parent Elizabeth Graig told the newspaper at the protest. “Gender identity or not, we all have different parts and are made differently.”

Read more about the protest from The Press-Enterprise: Rally at Temecula’s Day Middle School protests proposal on transgender students in locker room

Last week, several board members voted to table the controversial policy, including Board President Melinda Anderson and members Emil Barham, Steven Schwartz and Jen Wiersma.

The lone “no” vote came from Joseph Komrosky, who said such policies was like "putting lipstick on a pig." He said he wanted the opportunity to vote it down and never see it again.

Meanwhile, Barham was the one who suggested postponing the vote and said he wanted more time to create a new policy that would not stigmatize students by using mental health as an exemption.

Anderson said her daughter, who attends a private Christian school, wasn't made to change with students of the "opposite gender."

“Everyone who has come here and said ‘fight,’ what are your solutions?” Anderson said.