Southern California school board faces state scrutiny for blocking gay rights figure from curriculum

politico.com:

Rob Bonta (pictured), Gavin Newsom and state Superintendent Tony Thurmond last week warned school leaders against restricting curriculum and cautioned that content rejections would be reviewed by the attorney general.

The letter to Temecula is the first target of such a review. | AP By Blake Jones 06/07/2023 07:50 PM EDT Link CopiedSACRAMENTO, Calif. — Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta will review a Southern California school board’s decision to reject social studies curriculum over its mention of gay rights hero Harvey Milk, he told the Southern California school district in a letter Wednesday.

The blue state’s top cop pressed the Temecula Valley Unified School District for documents justifying its decision to block textbooks for first through fifth graders, and asked for information on its curriculum adoption policies.

Bonta’s office said it was “particularly concerned” by comments made by two members of the board’s conservative majority, who repeated an age-old allegation leveraged by conservatives that Milk was a “pedophile” — without substantiating their claim. “Not only could such statements reflect that the decision was motivated by a desire to erase from the history taught to students the contributions of a prominent and respected gay rights activist and leader, but they also suggest that the Board’s action may have been tainted by discriminatory animus,” Bonta’s office wrote in the letter. “Moreover, the invocation of a long-standing, but discredited, trope designed to demonize members of the LGBTQ community is likely to contribute to creating (if not intended to create) a hostile environment for LGBTQ students and staff, in violation of their civil rights.”Bonta, Gov.