Santa Ana District Board Member Fights for Parental Rights
Mahmoud v. Taylor (Part III)
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(Editor’s Note: Click here to read Part I: “Schools Cannot Withhold Parental Opt-Outs According To Supreme Court Ruling” and Part II: The impact on CA schools.)
CALIRED NEWS–Santa Ana Unified School District Board Member Brenda Lebsack is arguing that “opt-out is not enough” because the State of California has crossed a sacred line. In an email sent to EdSource and forwarded to CaliRed News she writes: “Extremist indoctrination and sexualization of minors through public schools should not be an “Opt-Out” it should be a crime.
“The California Department of Education and the California Teachers Association are promoting a religion / doctrine and using public education as their conduit of discipleship. This doctrine squelches tolerance for diverse thought, rather it cultivates hate toward any religion, political party or science that promotes binary genders of male and female.
“The creator of our National Social Justice Standards is the educational arm of the Southern Poverty Center. This organization has a hate map On their map are orthodox religious organizations and law groups that defend constitutional parent and religious rights.
“The “plus” at the end of LGTQIA+ is described by the California State Board of Education as ‘ever-expansive’ and ‘ever-evolving’ genders and sexualities, according to their newly adopted Health Framework and Ethnic Studies Framework. The California Department of Education defines nonbinary as: transgender, intersex, gender-neutral, agender, gendequeer, gender fluid, Two Spirit, bigender, pangender, gender nonconforming or gender variant++ ‘and that’s not all folks.’
“The Trevor Project (endorsed by the California Department of Education) says there are over 100 sexual identities, such as abrosexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polyamorous, sapphic, grey-ace, sapiosexual, tri-sexual, bicurious…to infinity and beyond. And if we do not affirm these ‘plus’ identities, we are called racists, haters, oppressors, homophobes, transphobes, or supremacists. Non-affirmers are even called killers because refusing to play, this alphabet groupthink game, is the alleged cause of suicide.”
Santa Ana Unified School District board policy #514531 of May 2023 outlines dealing with transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming students. The district has created an Identity Support Plan for school staff, caregivers, and students that Walter Myers, a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute, says “erodes parents’ rights which allows students to exclude their parents from being notified of their identities and experiences at school.”
Brenda Lebsack states that students may, with staff support, adopt a new name or pronouns or otherwise assert a new gender identity, and school staff are expressly prohibited from informing parents without the child’s consent. According to Lebsack, “this effectively redefines the parent-school relationship and makes school staff–not parents–the ultimate gatekeepers for life-changing information about a child’s identity.”
Santa Ana Unified School District policy includes no age thresholds. “Neither local board policy nor state guidance establishes any minimum age for the initiation of an Identity Support Plan. Lebsack “asserts that direct evidence exists of special needs students undergoing ‘gender-affirming’ counseling without parental knowledge.”
The curriculum recommended by both the California Department of Education and the California Teachers Association introduces students to the concept of puberty blockers and gender transition medications, framing them as “cures” for gender confusion. The CTA’s own policy advocates for access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy for children “with or without parent knowledge or consent.”
Lebsack worries that trust in the public education system will further erode–and the children at the center of the debate “may face unintended, and sometimes irreversible, consequences.”
(Editor’s Note: Read the 135-page Supreme Court decision and to read an opinion article by Richard Garnett: “Is Religious Freedom Possible In State Schools?“)
CaliRed News is a column posted on Making California Red by the 2026 elections through reaching Gen Z (ages 13-28), Hispanics, and Christians with biblical traditional values and their pastors. CaiRed News reports on political, business, community, nonprofit, and church news.
Mike Hernandez is co-founder of the Citizens Journal–Ventura County’s online news service and writes for Citizens Journal and Mountain Top Media. He is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor, writer of “CaliRed News” and “Prayer Over News Daily” and edits the weekly “Stories Speak Volumes” and other columns. Mr. Hernandez mentors citizen journalists/podcasters and can be contacted here.
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