In the last week of May, the Carlsbad Unified School Board declined a proposal to raise the Pride flag and delayed a decision on the matter, prompting protest from scores of students. The school district has not taken any action on Williams’ employment status, according to the school board’s personnel reports. Two weeks later, the school board held a special meeting about “significant exposure to litigation” but took no action.Ĭhurchill declined to comment on Williams’ status because it is a personnel matter. “It is essential that we create a supportive space where LGBTQ+ students and staff feel valued, respected, and free to express their authentic selves.” “I wholeheartedly disagree with the comments made, and condemn those comments as they are in conflict with California Education Code and our board’s 2021 resolution in support of LGBTQ+ students and staff,” Churchill wrote. On May 22 Superintendent Churchill condemned the comments in the recording that there should be no curriculum, clubs or celebrations regarding sexual orientation or gender identity. Williams could not be reached for comment. We love them and we see the harmful impacts that this is having on our kids,” Williams said in the recording. “It’s not because we’re bigoted, it’s not because we’re afraid of trans people. Williams encouraged churchgoers to show up at Carlsbad’s diversity plan input sessions and call for no “sexual identity or gender ideology curriculum, groups or celebrations” on campus, according a recording of the meeting that was widely circulated on the web and published by news organizations. Then in May, more controversy erupted after Carlsbad High School Vice Principal Ethan Williams was recorded speaking at a meeting of The Mission Church, where he has been an active member. The school board approved the high school ethnic studies film course but not without first eliminating mentions of institutional racism and “white Eurocentric dominant culture” from course materials. In March, Carlsbad educators’ attempts to create the district’s first ethnic studies course came under fire from parents who had protested COVID school closures and a local group that has led opposition to school racial equity efforts across the county. More than half of students are White, about 27 percent are Latino, 10 percent are multiracial, 5 percent are Asian and 1 percent is Black. In San Diego County such debates have caused conflicts in Coronado Unified, Poway Unified, Solana Beach Elementary, Escondido Union Elementary, San Dieguito Union High and Ramona Unified over the past three years.Ĭarlsbad’s 16 schools serve about 11,000 students, less than a third of whom are socioeconomically disadvantaged, which is less than the county average. Months of conflictĬarlsbad is one of many suburban or majority-White school districts across the country that have become embroiled in fights over whether or how public schools should teach about and make efforts to support people of color and LGBTQ people. The plan draft likely won’t come back to the board for consideration until its next regular meeting on July 19, Churchill said. The board delayed extensive discussion and a vote on the plan because Board President Ray Pearson was absent due to a medical emergency.
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