The Corona-Norco Unified School District Board of Education this week adopted a resolution recognizing the plight of LGBTQ+ staff and students.
“CNUSD has this organizational resilience that despite what is going on around us in Temecula, in Chino Hills, [Los Angeles], we still stick to what we think is good for kids,” Board Clerk Jose Lalas said. “We stick to equity, we stick to our resolution tonight on recognizing the plight of LGBTQ. We’re not scared, we’re courageous, because we know we’re doing the right thing.”
The resolution, which can be read in full here, was widely supported during public comment.
“Lady Gaga was right: we are all just born this way,” Don Fuller, a Corona resident, said. “Nobody chooses to be a member of the LGBTQ community, it’s just how people are born.
“It’s not a choice, not a behavior, not a trend, not a lifestyle, not a perversion, certainly not a sin,” he continued. “We’re all just people, and we all deserve to be treated equally.”
Fuller, who referred to himself as “straight as that door jamb over there,” spoke to the fact that nearly 30% of LGBTQ+ youth have reported experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity at some point in their lives, something Board Member Stacy Nicola also remarked on during the meeting.
“I too have had numerous of the high school students at my house overnight, for a short time, for a longer time … because they are not comfortable at home,” she said. “They don’t feel safe at home.
“But these kids are just lovely, amazing humans, and they have families and parents that are just very rigid — and I am saying that, you know, to each their own. Parenting is tough; I wish there was a manual,” she continued. “But the one thing I just do know is that they are our students, and they deserve to be loved and cherished.”
Others in the audience, like CNUSD parent Nancy Jimenez-Hernandez, applauded the board for “taking the stand.”
“Given the times that we’re living in, given the neighboring communities and the neighboring school districts and the upheaval happening during these school board meetings, I am pleasantly surprised, but proud that we don’t act that way,” she said. “I’m proud that we’re in a position right now that we are allowing, providing that safe haven for all students to be enriched.”
CNUSD parent Tami Friedrich shared with the board her daughter’s experience in the district as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
“In the fall of 2021, her and a friend decided they were going to run as homecoming king and queen. They both identify as the same gender,” she said. “The school totally supported them, the family supported them, the school supported them, and they won.”
Friedrich thanked the board for its continued support of LGTBQ+ youth in the district, stating that “now more than ever, we need your support.”
Only one speaker spoke out against the resolution, calling on the board to “focus on reading and writing and arithmetic, not the societal topic of the week.”
The resolution was adopted unanimously as part of a larger motion approving the consent agenda.
“I’m just really proud that I feel like this resolution at least shows the rest of the community, the state, the world where our heart is at in this room,” Nicola said.
In other board action: Patricia Correa Fudge was named as the new principal for Franklin Elementary, Shannon Tenney was named as the new assistant principal for Barton Elementary and Katie Vaughan was named as the new assistant principal for Centennial High School.
A video of the full meeting can be found here on the district’s YouTube page.
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