2 Orange school board conservatives ousted by recalls with LGBTQ+ policies at the center
Voters in the city of Orange appear to have ousted two conservative school board members who had spearheaded policies widely opposed by advocates for LGBTQ+ youth in a recall election viewed as a local bellwether for the culture wars in education.
“We did this recall knowing everyone was watching,” said parent Darshan Smaaladen, a leader of the recall effort. “These school board takeovers are part of a national trend. ... But for us it wasn’t about politics. It was about taking politics and personal agendas out of the school board and making students the first priority.”
The fiercely contested recall election in the Orange Unified School District intensified with the board majority’s approval in the fall of a parent-notification policy requiring educators to inform parents when a student requests “to be identified as a gender other than that student’s biological sex or the gender listed on the birth certificate or any other official records.”