Pronoun use ignites battle in California school district

Tensions are at an all-time high at the Los Alamitos Unified School District in Orange County, Calif. as parents raise concerns over a middle school teacher asking students to list their preferred pronouns.

Among the parents who’ve been outspoken against the strange teacher request is the publisher of a local LGBT magazine.

During a recent school board meeting, parents made their voices heard blaming the school board members for allowing leftist policies to creep into the classrooms. One parent pulled her child out of the school and is now reportedly running for a position on the school board.

“I am concerned about what they are teaching, about what’s being dripped in the classroom with the racism, the CRT, the sexual stuff, everything. There’s so many things. Even a tiny comment could twist a kid’s brain,” the parent stated.

Another parent, Robert Aguilar, is organizing a recall petition for several school board members. He raised concern over why a grown man wants or needs to know the sexuality of young children. “[The teacher] had been asking students to share their gender identification and gender preference and not be scared to do that, but you could see it as a certain way of communicating with children,” Aguilar said outside the school board meeting.

“However, there are parents that believe that is not the place for a science teacher. There was some concern, ‘Why would an adult man be asking minor children under the age of 14 about their sexuality?’ The parents are here to regain control over what is being enforced on and taught to their children.”

Los Alamitos resident Larry Tenney, who disagrees with the concerned parents spoke to the Los Angeles Blade about the situation. “Like many communities around the country this past year or two, Los Alamitos has seen a rise in activists on the right attacking its board of education. At the core are issues [regarding] LGBTQ students and education and Critical Race Theory,” Tenney told the Blade. He went on to denigrate and name-call the concerned parents saying, “There are rumblings about recalling the members of the Board of Education who local homophobic MAGAs call liberals & marxists. For the most part, the school district is simply following the laws and guidelines of the State of California.”

Tenney shared with the Blade that he had been following a Facebook group discussion about the school board issue and the teacher who asked students to divulge their pronouns. He shared a post that he found to be “ignorant” and “offensive.” The post was by a man named TJ Montemer. “There is no place in school where this should be a teachers place to let kids in middle school decide anything without parents,” Montemer wrote. “In the real world, no one gives a hoot about your gender identity. Woke kids equal soft kids which equal soft adults.”

Tenney then discovered that Montemer is the president of Mirror Media Group, a publishing company that publishes The Pride LA, an LGBT-centered news and entertainment outlet in Los Angeles. Tenney attacked Montemer on Twitter over his opinion. He tagged all of Montemer’s various partnered publications, possibly aiming at getting them to dissolve the partnership.

“TJ Montemer owns Mirror Media Group, publisher of @thepridela @smmirror @YoVenice @westsidelatoday etc. He wants Los Alamitos School Board recalled because middle school teacher asked students to ID their pronouns! Part of his livelihood comes from the #LGBTQ community!” tweeted Larry Tenney.

“Absolutely disgusting that the publisher of @thepridela, a newspaper servicing the LGBTQ+ community in Los Angeles, would publicly condemn a teacher for asking students their preferred pronouns,” another Twitter user attacked.