Foothills Sentry - October 2023

Page 5 Foothills Sentry October 2023 Circulation … 40,000 Published on the last Tuesday of each month and distributed to residences, businesses, libraries and civic centers. Printing by Advantage, Inc. 714-532-4406 Fax: 714-532-6755 foothillssentry.com 1107 E. Chapman Ave., #207 Orange, CA 92866 © Foothills Sentry 2023 Publisher/Editor Anita Bennyhoff 1969-2013 Editor Tina Richards editor@foothillssentry.com Sports Editor Cliff Robbins sportseditor@att.net Graphic Designer Jef Maddock graphics@foothillssentry.com Advertising Sales Andie Mills advertising@foothillssentry.com 714-926-9299 Office Manager Kathy Eidson officemanager@foothillssentry. com with the worst possible outcome -- losing dad’s love. Second, if he reacts negatively, I will be forced to make a choice, my husband or my child. As a devoted mother, I will always choose my child. That choice will probably result in divorce, up- rooting and changing everything my kids have ever known. Third, it’s possible that my child will be ready to tell their dad one day soon, and as a result my husband will confront and change his negative feelings to- ward transgender people. This is the outcome all of us are hoping for. It’s sickening that a new policy, written by a bunch of politicians, and mislabeled as a “parental rights” would destroy our family unit. The carelessness that Rick Ledesma, Madison Miner, John Ortega and Angie Rumsey dem- onstrated when they voted for it has left my kids and I living in a constant state of fear and anxiety. I feel robbed of my right to ad- dress an incredibly personal fam- ily matter on our own timeline. For that, I will never forgive them and I hope the effort to recall Rick Ledesma and Madison Miner is successful. Name withheld Orange Dear Editor: As a proud OUSD parent, I am appalled by the chaos brought to our beautiful town and district last week. The chaos brought by Rick Ledesma, Madison Miner, and John Ortega was nothing short of horrific and shameful. The peo- ple Ledesma and Miner brought in from other parts of Southern California to ridicule, harass and spout lies about our district made many OUSD parents mad. Did you see Rick Ledesma sitting there smugly while these outsiders physically and verbally harassed Orange parents, board members and teachers? This fur- ther reinforces that they do not care about our children's educa- tion. Why should Miner care? Her kids don't go to an OUSD school. Why should Ledesma care? His kids didn't go to an OUSD school either. Over 600-plus community members tuned in to watch the board meeting, and we watched them turn OUSD from an award- winning school system into a culture war. This is not what we want; what we want is a return to investing in our children's future, education, safety, and school in- frastructure. They haven't done anything for those topics in eight months. Our teachers, administra- tors and counselors are holding it together by a thread and doing the best they can, but until we recall Rick Ledesma and Madison Min- er, this circus won't end. Name withheld Orange Dear Editor: I was a parent in attendance at the last OUSD board meeting, and it was horrible. I got there at 3 p.m. By the time I signed in, I was the 59th person. Of the 90 people in the room, most were there to answer the call that Madison Miner put out on Instagram. Once the meeting started, it didn’t resemble any other board meeting I’ve been to. It got worse when one of the audience mem- bers interrupted the speaker, dur- ing open comments with a bull- horn. The crowd turned on them, gleefully taking pictures and shouting their narrative. I moved so I didn't get trampled by the mass of people rushing to be part of the action. Ledesma impotently banged his gavel. The mob then started shouting at the board minority. For their safety, the minority left. I was squeezed against the corner, away from the action, but that didn’t save me from getting singled out by one of the agitators and threatened. There were many calls for the meeting to be postponed due to the melee, but Ledesma wouldn’t hear of it. He needed to finish his dog and pony show. They voted in the trans-notifi- cation policy. Not the version that was publicly accessible with the agenda, but the version that they placed on the seats in the room right before the meeting. I hope the recall happens so that our board meetings can start being about our schools, and not a propaganda piece that draws in elements from the surrounding counties. I hope they don't do too much more damage before they are recalled. Name withheld Orange Dear Editor: I am a teacher in OUSD. I at- tended the Sept. 7 board meeting. The focus of the night was to vote on the board policy regarding transgender students. But the true focus was the chaos inside and outside the board rooms. While there were OUSD par- ents and residents in attendance, there were also many outside groups. With little effort, these groups took over the meeting. Speakers for and against the pol- icy had to compete with chanting in the courtyard. The situation grew more vola- tile. At 9 p.m., we were told to re- main inside the board room until security and police could con- trol the crowd outside. Around 10:30, an altercation broke out in the board room between two outside groups. OUSD has been through a lot. I have been to my share of board meetings in my 25 years with the district. I was there during the sick out, the strike, the furlough days and the pandemic. Still, ad- ministrators, teachers, the union, and, yes, even the school board, worked together to keep OUSD functioning. Even the most contentious times in the last 25 years did not produce the level of agitation and chaos of the Sept. 7 meeting. Name withheld Orange Dear Editor: As a 27-year Orange resident, mother of two children who at- tend/attended OUSD, and an educator myself, I was ashamed and embarrassed as I watched the spectacle that was the OUSD School Board meeting on Sept. 7. A huge group of outside agi- tators was invited into our com- munity by the OUSD Board ma- jority. If you have watched the news lately, you would have rec- ognized most of these folks, not as Orange residents, but as part of a well-coordinated attack on protected groups under the guise of "parental rights." These turf surfing masses have recently invaded the Chino Hills, Temecula, Murrieta and other school district meetings. These agitators do not live in our city, have children in our schools, or reflect the viewpoints of the typ- ical Orange resident. The invited agitators were given prior notice of a new board policy that required people to get a ticket to claim a seat at the meeting. This information was not disseminated to parents or teachers. The meeting itself was a sev- eral-hour tirade from board ma- jority supporters. Approximately 90% of the speakers were nei- ther residents of Orange, OUSD parents, students or other OUSD stakeholders. Teachers, parents and board minority members were called groomers, indoctrinators, pe- dophiles and a myriad of other slurs. Outrageous claims were made including absurd con- spiracy theories like teachers providing hormones to transition children and the schools encour- aging abortions. At one point, the crowd be- came heated and started chant- ing. Some of the agitators started approaching the board and ver- bally threatening Kris Erickson and the other minority members. Trustees Erickson, Andrea Ya- masaki and Ana Page felt that their safety was in danger, right- fully so, and were escorted out of the meeting by security. I plead to the rational citizens of our beloved city, and the real stakeholders in OUSD, to put an end to this chaos. We know what is right. We need to work togeth- er for the future of our children and our city. Let's hold the board major- ity accountable for their radical actions. Please sign the petition to recall the OUSD trustees re- sponsible for inviting this chaos into our city, Rick Ledesma and Madison Miner. Name withheld Orange Statement from OUSD Trustees Erickson, Yamasaki and Page The destruction of public edu- cation and public decency is un- derway at the direction of Rick Ledesma and Madison Miner. During the Sept. 7 board meet- ing, outside extremists from LA to San Diego who are aligned with Ledesma’s majority filled our boardroom, shoving OUSD parents and teachers out of the process. The rhetoric and vitriol maligning our teachers and others escalated throughout the night. We received report our security team could not control the physi- cal fights between groups outside the boardroom and, at one point, were advised to shut the meeting down for the safety of us and oth- ers. Yet, the meeting continued. When the altercation erupted in- side the boardroom, President Ledesma did nothing. The audience, many of whom seek viral video content for so- cial media, turned on us. One videotaping agitator, in a frenzy, started targeting and encourag- ing the mob to focus on Trustee Erickson. Our staff escorted us to our vehicles as we saw no safe op- tion other than to leave. President Ledesma failed to follow board protocol to stop the meeting and escort the board to a safe room. His lack of leadership or concern for us as his colleagues is appall- ing. By bringing culture wars into Orange Unified, the Ledesma majority has invited the most radical elements into our district, OUR home. We can only imagine how difficult it is for our LGBTQ youth to exist in this toxic and hateful environment where poli- ticians are exploiting their very existence to score political points. The policy's five-day forced out- ing is arbitrary and cruel and has no basis in good mental health practice. We provide no ongoing support for these students and families that we inject ourselves into – on our timeline, not theirs – to confront a sensitive and nu- anced issue they many not be ready to deal with. This will force young people back into the closet to deal with difficult issues alone. It’s shameful. We have put our hearts and souls into OUSD as trustees, par- ents, longtime volunteers, and former students. We are heartbro- ken that our board is focused on political antics instead of driving our district forward for students. Teachers' association responds to trans-student policy The Orange Unified Education Association (OUEA) is inter- ested in improving the working conditions of our members and the best instruction and learn- ing of our students. The recently adopted Orange Unified School District (OUSD) Board Policy 5020.2 (parental notification of trans students) is problematic for several reasons. 1. This policy does nothing to improve instruction or learning, which is supposedly the goal of the OUSD Board. There is no ev- idence that this policy is needed, nor that it will improve learning. 2. This policy is fiscally ir- responsible. It opens the district to litigation, as evidenced by the State Attorney General’s legal action against another school dis- trict with a similar policy. 3. This is a political distrac- tion. The OUSD Board should be focused on the classrooms that have failing or failed HVAC systems and needed security en- hancements to protect students and staff, not a policy that targets a small group of students. 4. This policy fails to empower parents. Parents have no right to opt out as it is currently. If a par- ent is already aware of their child identifying as a gender different from that assigned at birth, that parent has no means to opt out of this policy. This shortsightedness shows the board majority’s failure to empower parents. Parents can opt out of mandated testing, compre- hensive sexual health education and they can opt out of their child being photographed, but they can’t opt out of this policy. OUEA’s mission is to imple- ment a program that provides the best possible conditions of edu- cational service, maintain a con- tract on behalf of our members, and enhance the educational pro- grams of the district. This adopt- ed policy fails to fall within those parameters. This policy is unnecessary, divisive, and evidence of man- agement malfeasance. OUEA strongly urges the OUSD Board to focus attention, resources, and support to student learning, hiring and retaining excellent staff, and improved relationships among the community and within our own schools. This recent ac- tion is a huge disappointment and setback for our school district. Gas utility service finally returns to La Veta Monterey condos Councilman Jon Dumitru re- ported at the Orange City Coun- cil meeting, Sept. 12, that the 212 units at the La Veta Monterey Condominiums complex in West Orange had gas service fully re- stored, as of Sept. 15. Residents had been without gas since June 2 when a leak forced the gas company to turn off the utility. The condo complex, built in 1972, was serviced by a single gas line, with no way to isolate a specific area when the leak oc- curred. The entire system had to be shut down. After a number of false starts and miscommunica- tions, the complex is now home to an updated system with sepa- rate gas lines supplying the build- ings. Some buildings had gas re- stored to tenants last month. City inspectors were on call to sign off on the work as soon as it was completed. The gas company also made an effort to OK the new in- stallation with minimal delays. Because the new pipe instal- lation belongs to the condo as- sociation and not the gas com- pany, property owners are being assessed a $4,800 fee to pay for it. But, says condo owner Betty Talbert, “We can live in safety because So Cal Gas and the city intervened on our behalf.”