It happened at a July 20 school board meeting in Chino Valley, California. The board wanted to mandate that parents/guardians be told if their children are being talked into becoming transgender. The state's superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurmond, was there to speak against the proposal – and he was permitted to speak the same length of time as others: one minute.
When told his time had expired, he attempted to bring up a point of order; but Chino Valley Unified School District board president Sonja Shaw would have none of it:
Thurmond: "As a point of order, as the board president …"
Shaw: "No order. This is not your meeting, you may have a seat – because if I did that to you in Sacramento you would not accept it. Please sit."
Thurmond: "May I get a point of order …"
Shaw: "You're not going to blackmail us."
Thurmond was then escorted out of the meeting after he exceeded his allotted time.
Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills says the pushback was the result of a well-planned assault on those wanting to pervert and mutilate children. The first step was running and getting control of the school board … then push the change.
"We launched a campaign informing parents: take the verbiage of this bill that was submitted by [Republican] Assemblyman Bill Essayli and introduce it to your school board," Hibbs tells AFN.
That bill, AB-1314, "provide[s] that a parent or guardian has the right to be notified in writing within 3 days from the date any teacher, counselor, or employee of the school becomes aware that a pupil is identifying at school as a gender that does not align with the child's sex on their birth certificate, other official records, or sex assigned at birth …."
According to Hibbs and other commentators around the country, Christians and conservatives are engaging the woke gender culture because they feel there is power in numbers and they are making a difference.
"To think that this is somehow not a battle and not a war for the minds and hearts and lives of our children is to be naïve," the pastor adds.
The Chino Valley school board adopted the new policy on a 4-1 vote. Days later, Shaw appeared on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins and reported that a death threat against her came via an anonymous phone call the day after the vote.
See related news report below
This is the first in a series of articles on the "War on Woke." Subsequent reports will deal with grassroots pushback against such topics as race and climate change.
