A defiant conservative majority on the board of the Murrieta Valley Unified School District (MVUSD) voted to ignore an order from the state of California to rescind a discriminatory policy that requires teachers and school administrators in Riverside County to out any trans or nonbinary student that asks to be called by a name or pronoun different than the ones listed on their birth certificate.

A packed audience in the ruby red district cheered the result.

“We have a right as a board to defy a dictatorial governor and bureaucracy — or whatever — that tries to take away our rights as parents and as citizens — as a duly elected board,” board member Nick Pardue told constituents at the meeting last Thursday. “We have legal standing and we should absolutely stand up for our rights against dictators.”

A report released on April 10 by the California Department of Education found that the notification rules were discriminatory and therefore illegal. The department ordered the Riverside County school system, which contains Murrieta Valley, to provide written notice to all employees within five days that the notification policy is “inconsistent” with the state education code and will “not be implemented,” according to The Los Angeles Times.

The department told MVUSD that the policy “provided no educational or administrative purpose that could justify the discrimination of LGBT+ students,” and warned it “singles out and is directed exclusively toward one group of students based on that group’s legally protected characteristics of identifying with or expressing a gender other than that identified at birth.”

Murrieta Superintendent Dr. Ward Andrus’ followed the order with a notification to staff reversing the policy after the April 10 order was received. The district also sent an emailed notice to parents, faculty, and staff members stating that the policy was rescinded.

Thursday’s vote by the board reverses the reversal.

The right-wing board members undertook the defiant vote despite a warning from the district’s law firm to board President Paul Diffley, who sponsored the outing rules. The law firm warned that “‘going ahead (with the policy) in such an environment’ could cost the district $500,000 in legal expenses.”

Among a majority of speakers in favor of the reversal, the board’s student member, Isabella Dadalt, cowed the audience into silence as she ran down a long list of reasons the outing policy was harmful to children.

“I do not believe that their students would ever withhold information from their parents unless they were genuinely forced to,” Dadalt said. “So if you’re a parent, and you feel [offended] by the fact that your student is going to a teacher instead of you, I think you need to rethink your parenting.”

Board member Linda Lunn, who voted against the policy reinstatement, told the Times the divisive cultural battle was a waste of district time and resources.

“This is weaponizing Murrieta Valley Unified to play politics with Sacramento, and they’re using taxpayer money to do it,” Lunn said.

“I believe in following the law and the Education Code,” Young said. “They don’t all seem to understand that the Code is the law.”

Similar battles are being waged in other Riverside County school districts, including Temecula and Chino, both hotbeds of “parental rights” activism.

“We will continue to stand strong, linked arms all over California, to ensure the government does not infringe on parental rights — period,” Chino Valley School Board President Sonja Shaw said recently.

The state investigation in Murrieta was prompted after two teachers filed a complaint. One, 6th and 7th grade teacher Karen Poznanski, is also a district parent with a nonbinary child.

“This policy, whether enforced or not, hindered our LGBTQ+ students from living authentically,” Poznanski told The Times. “Moreover, it not only compromised their privacy and dignity, but also perpetuated harm and discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals and their families.”

Poznanski called the reinstated policy an example of discrimination and a misuse of power “in its most blatant form.”