'Christian-Nationalism' Eyed By Candidates For Southwest RivCo Schools

SOUTHWEST RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA – Seven local Christian-conservative school board hopefuls are aiming to remove members who they believe are providing students at Southwest Riverside County schools with inappropriate lessons about sex and race, according to the Daily Bulletin.

On November 8, voters will determine new school board members in the Lake Elsinore Unified School District, the Murrieta Valley Unified School District and the Temecula Valley Unified School District. Candidates and community members alike are at odds over the school’s methods to educate versus impose beliefs, including those concerning LGBTQ people, the news outlet reported.

“I’m here for the people, for parents. I’m here for the kids. This is all for the safety of children,” Courtney Cooper, a Murrieta Valley Unified School District board candidate, said in an interview with 412 Church Temecula Valley Pastor Tim Thompson. “Sexual indoctrination is pedophilia. It really is.”

Others argue that removing or withholding teachings about such issues is just as damaging to students and the community.

“This is an attempt to turn the local school systems into a Christian-nationalist state, with really no regard for actual education,” said Christine Massa of the social justice group Temecula Unity, according to the Daily Bulletin.

The seven Christian-conservative candidates are all endorsed by Inland Empire Family PAC, a political organization that, according to its official website, is “working together to elect bold, pro-parental rights candidates to our local school boards.”

Read the full report in the Daily Bulletin.