The Redlands school board discussed a number of controversial policies at a workshop on Friday. The proposals are all championed by the so-called parental rights movement and are similar to policies passed in other Inland Empire school districts.
Another policy would require teachers to notify parents if their child requests changes to their records. It’s similar to the Chino Valley district’s revamp of their transgender notification policy, which was the subject of lawsuits.
Michael Paisner, a parent of a student in the district, told the board these policies will get Redlands sued, too.
“The discriminatory intent of the policies had already been made clear, and now you want to roll the dice on the same policies here in Redlands and see what legal quagmire you end up in,” Paisner said during public comment.
A policy to ban obscene classroom materials was also discussed…though they did not define obscene.
Another proposed policy would have banned all flags that are not the American, California or military flags. Critics of the policy said the intent is to ban pride flags. The policy was first discussed at a meeting in January, where the board decided to form a committee. At Friday’s workshop, the board decided not to move forward with the flag policy. They decided not to move forward with a proposal that would have given the board broader powers to remove books deemed inappropriate from school libraries.
The meeting was held during school hours and the policies were not published beforehand. The board didn’t vote on any policies at the workshop.