PERB complaint filed on book ban
The Redlands Teachers Association (RTA) has filed an unfair labor practices charge against the Redlands Unified School District over the school board’s flag ban. The policy bans all flags besides the California, American and military flags from flying on Redlands campuses. RTA alleges the board violated California law by failing to negotiate prior to the ban’s approval.
According to public records, lawyers for RTA filed the complaints with California’s Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) on August 22. RTA President Stephen Caperton said the district’s failure to negotiate violates California’s Educational Employment Relations Act (EERA), which established collective bargaining rights for employees in California public schools and community colleges. PERB oversees and enforces the EERA.
The board began discussing the flag ban in March and passed the final version in late June with a 3-2 vote. Caperton said the board did not negotiate the language of the policy between March and June.
“We should have gone through the negotiation process, been able to negotiate the actual language itself, as opposed to just being allowed to negotiate, you know, potential impacts on our working conditions,” said Caperton.
Caperton said RUSD and RTA are in negotiations about the effects and impacts of the flag ban, but the policy cannot be changed.
“They [the school board] ended up prescribing creating such an overly broad policy that it just becomes impossible to practically implement,” said Caperton. Teachers, he said, are scared they’ll be punished if they don’t follow the policy correctly.
Under the EERA, union speech is protected. Caperton said many teachers wear rainbow-colored cards from the union that say “I’m here” to indicate to LGBTQ students they’re a safe person to talk to. He worries that due to the broadness of the flag ban, teachers will not be allowed to wear the badges because they depict the Pride flag.
This is not the first school district to have a PERB complaint filed against it over a flag banning policy. Last year, PERB ruled the Temecula school board violated their teachers’ contracts for refusing to negotiate at all with the Temecula Valley Educators Association. Temecula’s school board ended up rescinding its flag ban last December.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Redlands Unified School District said:
“The Redlands Unified School District is aware of the recent action filed by both Redlands Teachers Association (RTA) and Redlands Education Support Professionals Association (RESPA) with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). We respect their decision to pursue this matter through the appropriate legal process and acknowledge their efforts to represent and advocate for their members.
“As a district, we remain committed to maintaining open lines of communication and to working in good faith with both of our employee associations. We value the dedication of our teachers and staff, and we will continue to collaborate with our labor partners to support our students, schools and community.”
Book removal policy goes into effect, district looks for volunteers
Meanwhile, RUSD has asked for volunteers to join a committee to review challenged library books.
The book removal policy was passed last week. It expedites the removal process if a member of the public makes a formal complaint that a book contains perceived pornography. It also requires the superintendent to convene a committee that includes a school board member, librarian, principal, cabinet member and parent.
The committee will be tasked with devising a rubric — that must be approved by the district — to determine how to review challenged books. Any challenged book will be pulled from the shelves while it undergoes the review process.
The committee will have three months to read and review each challenged book and make recommendations to the board, who ultimately will decide whether to permanently remove the book.