The Temecula Valley School District has hired a law firm known for defending Christian conservatives to represent it in a lawsuit against its ban on teaching “critical race theory.”
The law firm, Advocates for Faith and Freedom, has previously backed efforts to ban same-sex marriage, protect doctors who spread COVID-19 misinformation, challenge vote-by-mail laws, and other conservative causes.
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The firm is also currently representing a Jurupa Unified School District teacher who was fired for allegedly making offensive social media posts, proselytizing during class, and refusing to refer to students by their preferred pronouns.
The school board approved the hiring by a split vote Wednesday night, with president Joseph Komrosky giving it an enthusiastic endorsement.
“Personally, I want this lawsuit to be destroyed by an awesome constitutional lawyer that would work pro bono on behalf of the district,” he said. “Quite frankly, if this goes to the Supreme Court of the United States, awesome.”
The lawsuit against Temecula Valley Unified was filed earlier this month on behalf of several students and teachers who object to the school district’s vague and wide-reaching ban on “critical race theory,” adopted by the board in December 2022.
Although critical race theory is an advanced academic framework that isn’t taught in K-12 schools to begin with, the term has become a catch-all for any discussion of racism. The Temecula Valley resolution specifically bans schools from teaching that there are “oppressor” and “oppressed” classes based on race or sex, or that the preservation of slavery was a factor in the American Revolution.
Critics of the ban say it hurts teachers' ability to teach state-mandated content and student's ability to explore a wide range of issues. One speaker at Wednesday’s meeting took special aim at the board's hiring of a law firm with a particular political and religious agenda.
“The government cannot hire a law firm with a very specific religious ideology because that is discriminatory for the public, which you’re supposed to represent,” she said.
The Temecula Valley school board was also recently investigated by the California Department of Education for their rejection of a social studies curriculum that mentioned gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk. Komrosky came under fire during the controversy for calling Milk a “pedophile.”
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