Among the executive orders issued by President Donald Trump within the last few weeks is one titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” which sets protocols for how schools should handle topics like racism and gender identity and the consequences for failure to comply, according to The White House.
The executive order plans to penalize teachers for “unlawfully facilitating the social transition of a minor student” and prohibits teaching that “an individual’s moral character or status as privileged, oppressing, or oppressed is primarily determined by the individual’s race, color, sex, or national origin,” according to the White House. Social transition refers to actions such as teachers using preferred student names or pronouns upon request, according to the executive order.
The district is not obligated to change any of its current policies on the basis of this executive order, Superintendent Cheryl Jordan said.
“Our California Attorney General has been issuing lawsuits against the executive orders, and this is one of them,” Jordan said. “So, for the time being, we are perfectly within our rights to continue following our board policies in California.”
The executive order has caused concern and disrupted public education, according to Board President Chris Norwood.
“Good education is continuous, and anytime there is a disruption in education something is lost,” Norwood said.
Norwood finds it difficult to see any benefits to this executive order, he said.
“There is an effort to change the direction of modern society,” Norwood said. “That is concerning. We have got to be global citizens. We have got to be international thinkers.”
The executive order upset social studies teacher Rylie Zea personally due to how it unfairly targets transgender students, she said.
“It is basically like making the whole issue again about gender identity and about teachers somehow indoctrinating children,” Zea said. “When really we’re just trying to show students that transgender people exist. It kind of demonizes teachers.”
As a citizen of the United States, Zea is not happy with the direction this executive order is pushing the nation towards, she said.
“We’ve seen other governments take this step, and it’s usually a negative direction,” Zea said. “It’s usually for erasure. It’s usually to control how society views the norm, and unfortunately, it’s pushing the norm towards a direction that maintains systems of power that we’ve fought for quite some time now to dismantle.”
The district currently has varying policies on how teachers can approach discussions around politically charged topics, such as racism and gender ideology, Jordan said. The district’s main focus is on the strategic goal of creating a “Culture of We,” she added.
“We assure you that we are making strides to provide learners with aspects of themselves,” Jordan said. “Their ethnicities, their cultures, their collective histories within the content area, so that it is not Eurocentric.”
Zea believes that there are methods of teaching the history of the nation accurately without making individual students feel guilty, she said.
“There have been state laws that have done similar things to this executive order in the past too, like Texas has had laws passed about, particularly the aspect of (not) making certain groups of students feel guilty about certain historical events, particularly white students,” Zea said. “If you are making individual students feel responsible for any part of it, then you’re likely not teaching it in a correct manner.”
It is difficult for Zea to see how the executive order will be executed, she said.
“Part of Donald Trump’s political strategy and the Republican Party in general right now is to release as many executive orders as possible,” Zea said. “It’s part of trying to nail down his messaging. How do we know what he’s actually going to do versus what’s just pushing his message and not going to be enforced?”
If the executive order was enforced, it would likely not directly impact the district, Jordan said.
“Our funding predominantly comes from the state and some local revenues,” Jordan said. “The federal funding is about 5% of our budget and the main federal funding we rely on with that 5% is providing resources for us to more deeply address the needs of our learners from low-income backgrounds and second-language learners.”
Zea would have to change the entire structure of her ethnic studies class if the executive order was enforced, she said.
“Quite frankly, the executive order itself is trying to reinforce the power systems that are in order currently, and trying to continue keeping certain narratives in the limelight while keeping others out of it, embracing (certain) narratives, which all of the ethnic studies is against,” Zea said.
Jordan is very proud of the district’s diversity policies, she said.
“We all have a voice, and we all come to the table to discuss things and we may not always agree, but we’re always working to build a ’Culture of We,’” Jordan said. “I will never give that up as long as I am superintendent no matter what any executive order tells me.”