The Temecula Valley Unified School District’s (TVUSD) board president, Josepth Komrosky, has become the target of a recall after a petition demanding his removal gained enough signatures to be added to the ballot. The board voted to recommend May 28 as the recall election date. Komrosky has become the subject of recall due to his extreme far-right political leadership as board president. The policies implemented under Komrosky’s leadership represent a harmful wave of politicization in schools and an increased failure to provide students with an honest education.
This move on the part of the community comes as a surprise in Temecula, a largely conservative location. This represents a strong apprehension and opposition to the politicization of education and the school board. The One Temecula Valley Political Action Committee (PAC), which is part of the effort to recall Komrosky, has been outspoken in showing that this petition is the result of people who want school boards to be about what’s best for the people schools are supposed to be led by and serve students and teachers.
Many of those who signed the petition describe themselves as conservatives. These individuals may believe in these values being a part of the school board but oppose Komrosky’s actions, which they feel are targeting teachers and children exercising their fundamental constitutional and human rights. School boards need to be about building up and supporting a fracturing public school system, and Komrosky has been unable to convince anyone of his good intentions.
Komrosky has also stifled free speech at board meetings and denied members of the community their rights to speak on issues. A lawsuit seeking a financial reward of exactly $1 and attorney’s fees was filed against Komrosky for his soccer carding system, which he uses to remove speakers he believes violate board rules. Despite these rules being intended to kick out those who caused actual disruptions, they became about removing attendees who were “likely to disrupt” the meeting and those who offered inflammatory commentary, including a woman who called a board member a “homophobe” and a man who said one board member “was probably a communist.” Regardless of the offensive nature of such commentary, they represent the speakers’ opinions, which they have every right to share. First Amendment rights must be protected at every turn, regardless of the controversy they inspire or the sensibilities they offend. Ensuring that these speakers are allowed to say what they believe is the only way to ensure newspapers can print what they want and protestors can say what they want.
A major part of Komrosky’s efforts is about pushing for parents’ rights at the expense of their children. By violating student’s privacy to keep parents informed on their children’s identity, he has made schools an inherently unsafe space. Komrosky has made victims out of children in the name of religious indignation. It is unconstitutional and morally wrong to make curriculum choices or reveal a child’s identity for the sake of one’s personal beliefs. While parents do need latitude to parent their children, they have no right to interfere in the learning and privacy of an entire school district’s worth of children. It’s a blatant overreach and expands the concept of parents’ rights beyond what is reasonable or right. Simply because a student adopts a different gender identity at school does not mean they are publicly proclaiming it to the world, and the staff has a right to expose them off school grounds.
Politics do not belong in determining educational standards and Komrosky has no right to cherry-pick which perspectives children are exposed to based on personal politics or religious beliefs. The board, under Komrosky’s leadership, banned the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) and required schools to inform parents of their child’s gender identity in a stunning show of cruelty toward children. Kromsky has claimed to be “rigorously seek[ing] out and stand against any evil such as pervasive obscenity, vulgarity, pornography and erotica here at TVUSD. I will continue to resist these harmful things with every ounce of my being.” However, the policies that have garnered national attention and the community’s ire have nothing to do with any of those things.
Furthermore, these students were never exposed to CRT to begin with, as it has never been implemented in Temecula. Board member Allison Barclay, who voted against the ban, stated, “There is no need for this resolution. It silences history.” This was a political move done not out of real concern about the actual curriculum but simply to condemn any acknowledgment of undeniable institutional racism.
The conservative values Kromsky is peddling are taking it too far. In dictating terms and excluding important curriculum from students’ education, they fail to prepare them for the future fully. These beliefs have a place in discourse, but they cannot be to the exclusion of other scholarly viewpoints. Children deserve and must be exposed to various belief systems and values. Religious and personal beliefs do not constitute empirical evidence that educational standards are wrong or need to be banned.
Kromsky’s politics are part of a national education trend that ignores students’ needs. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is losing traction in at least eight states banning or limiting its inclusion. It’s been called a “trojan horse” for curricula on gender identity or CRT when it’s aimed at increasing students’ ability to work well with others. This ignores a host of evidence that conclusively found SEL improves academic performance and student well-being. This trend of trying to score political points by denying children has to stop.
Censorship of any kind creates a climate of fear in schools, further burdening educators. When, in 2023, the Florida Department of Education banned course content on gender identity and sexuality in Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology courses and endangered students trying to earn college credit for those courses, schools were forced to remove books and course materials to avoid potential penalties. Kromsky’s work also restricts curriculum through intimidation, as violations can lead to consequences for teachers. Educational staff have been dismissed and penalized for violating censorship policies. In 2022, it was reported that over 160 teachers were fired or quit due to political interference in their jobs. Teachers are being put in the middle of a fight they didn’t sign up for and their job security is being jeopardized to do it.
There is no way to allow Kromsky to continue in his position and meet the district’s needs. Temecula’s parents have come together to recall him, and beyond the politics, he has made his position about political buzzwords and not about having the students’ best interests in mind.
