Opposition mounts to Orange County proposal to ban ‘communist indoctrination’ in schools

Opponents turned out last week at an Orange County Board of Education meeting where a trustee has proposed a policy banning “communist indoctrination,” eliminating police, critical race theory and other topics from the classroom, Voice of OC reported.

“(The proposed policy) denies the humanity and existence of many communities that call Orange County home, and it breeds hate and promotes bigoted thinking in our students,” Uyen Hoang, executive director of Viet Rainbow of OC, a local LGBTQ grassroots organization, said at Wednesday’s meeting. “(It’s) racist and backwards.”

The proposal comes from trustee Ken Williams, who said he did not intend the policy to be divisive.

“A lot of this specifically in here is, is just to create the concept that we are all the same, that regardless of our race, or gender or sexual identity, we’re all the same,” he said.

The proposal would apply to schools under the jurisdiction of the county Office of Education, such as the juvenile hall school, not the county’s 28 school districts. The board has not yet scheduled a vote on the proposal.