California school board once in Newsom's crosshairs now sued by parents, teachers union challenging CRT ban

The Temecula Valley (California) School District's board is facing legal challenges over a ban on critical race theory instruction after its then-new conservative majority voted 3-2 to end the allegedly divisive curriculum in its schools last December.

"The vague Resolution hinders Temecula educators’ ability to teach State-mandated content standards, prepare for the coming academic year, and support rather than stifle student inquiry. In turn, Temecula students are deprived of the opportunity to engage in factual investigation, freely discuss ideas, and develop critical thinking and reasoning skills," the lawsuit reads.

"While harming all schoolchildren, the Resolution in particular injures children of color and LGBTQ children, stigmatizing their identities, histories, and cultures."

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Critical race theory was banned by California's Temecula Valley Unified School District at a meeting in December. (istock)

Law firm Public Counsel and the law firm Ballard Spahr filed the suit on behalf of Temecula Valley Educators Association — a local teachers union — that joined forces with parents and students against the board, alleging the ban on CRT curriculum is "unconstitutional" and, according to the complaint, "infringe[s] on Temecula schoolchildren’s fundamental right to an education, causing them irreparable harm."

Critical race theory has become a hot-button issue among parents, educators and school board members, with many school board overhauls bringing in conservative majorities that ended the practice altogether. In other places, parents have, at times, demanded the instruction be banned for allegedly promoting ideas that America is systemically racist and viewing the world in collective terms of race, power and class instead of adhering to individualism.

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A Riverside County, California, sheriff's deputy watches over the overflow crowd at a public board meeting at the Temecula Valley Unified School District headquarters in Temecula on July 18, 2023. (Will Lester/MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images)

The lawsuit alleges the board's move violates components of California law requiring that "every local education agency with students in grades 9–12 "offer at least a one-semester course in ethnic studies" beginning in 2025," adding, "For students who start high school the following fall, the course will be a prerequisite for graduation." 

The document cites that requirements laid out for the curriculum include instruction on the historic struggles of communities of color, systemic oppression and more. "A teacher cannot comply with California law and the Resolution at the same time," the lawsuit argues.

The resolution under scrutiny in the lawsuit, in part, argues that CRT "assigns generational guilt for conduct and policies that are long in the past" and that nothing in the resolution "shall require any staff member to violate local, state, or federal law."

Quoting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the resolution states that the board believes people should be judged by the "content of their character" and not the "color of their skin."

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened the Temecula Valley Unified School District with a $1.5 million fine for its prior refusal to adopt state-approved social studies curriculum. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

The Temecula Valley Unified School District recently garnered media attention for the board's refusal to adopt a state-approved social studies curriculum over allegations that it contained references to late gay rights activist and former San Francisco politician Harvey Milk.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened the board with a $1.5 million fine for its refusal, but board members later adopted the curriculum.

Fox News Digital reached out to a member of Public Counsel, contacts for Ballard Spahr and the Temecula Valley Unified School District's board for comment.

Scott Humphreys, a Partner in the Litigation Department at Ballard Spahr, was not immediately available for comment, but a contact for the organization directed Fox News Digital to a press release from Wednesday containing the following remark: "We’re proud to partner with Public Counsel on this case about the Temecula school board’s unconstitutional attempt to control what our students learn and silence the voices and perspectives of marginalized communities."

"Students, educators, and parents have bravely stepped up to fight for what is right and ensure that their community’s public schools are able to educate students free from censorship," the release added.

Public Counsel directed Fox News Digital to the same press release, which also included comments from Mark Rosenbaum, Director of Public Counsel’s Opportunity Under Law project and Amanda Mangaser Savage, Supervising Attorney of Public Counsel’s Opportunity Under Law project.

"A healthy democracy depends on classrooms that serve as a marketplace of ideas," Mangaser Savage said. "The Board’s censorship is antithetical to the constitutional values of free speech and freedom from discrimination that are the foundation of this nation’s civic life. The resolution deprives Temecula’s students of the ability to think critically, act empathetically, and distinguish fact from fiction," she added.

Rosenbaum said the following, per the release: "The ideal of public education is to open the minds and hearts of students to the experiences and insights of communities beyond their own."

He added, "It is to build powers of exploration, imagination, critical thinking, and empathy. The Temecula school board resolution that is the subject of this lawsuit seeks to subvert this ideal by stifling teachers from promoting these values and instead imposing an ideology that introduces insidious racial and gender stereotypes into the classroom. If permitted to stand, the resolution will replace education with indoctrination, open-mindedness with bigotry, truth with falsehoods."

The TVUSD did not immediately respond.

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Taylor Penley is an associate editor with Fox News.