"The health and safety of students and employees is everyone's responsibility. Thank you for doing your part to keep all of our students and employees safe."
- LAUSD
Responding to my invitation to "tell me a little bit about yourself and your positions," so that I could write an article about her entry into the 2024 LAUSD School Board race, Raquel Villalta directed me to her website. Eager to see where this new candidate stood on the issues, I clicked first on the section marked "Vision." This is what it had to say in its entirety:
"Vision for our Schools:
Raquel Villalta places a strong emphasis on schools prioritizing student achievement by setting high expectations and providing necessary assistance to struggling students. It is essential to refocus on promoting academic rigor, teaching core subjects effectively, and involving parents in the curriculum selection process."
The first sentence is harmless but essentially meaningless. Is there a candidate running for a school board position who advocates for lowering student expectations or reducing assistance for struggling students?
At first glance, the second sentence continues in the same vein but then descends into language that appears to be coded toward attracting the attention of culture warriors who have declared war on our public education systems. Is Villalta's call for "teaching core subjects effectively" another "brave" stance against those who want these subjects taught ineffectively or is she siding with those who like to limit a teacher's ability to provide emotional support to their students? Her Instagram account being followed by the anti-LGBTQ+ bigots at the Saticoy Elementary "Parents" group seems to suggest the latter is possible.
The promise to involve "parents in the curriculum selection process" also seems to play into those who are scared by books that state "Some children have two mummies or two daddies." The apparent pandering is made worse by the fact that this is a campaign promise that she cannot fulfill. In California, the curriculum is set by state officials, not the local school board.
With a platform not included on Villalta's website, I searched elsewhere for any mention of how she plans to emphasize the prioritization of student achievement. The Facebook page linked to her campaign website has yet to post anything about education, but does have a banner that declares "One Nation Under GOD." She also includes the debunked George Washington quote where he is alleged to have declared that "it is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible." This left me wondering what she taught her elementary school students about the separation of church and state enshrined in our Constitution. She did admit to the California Globe that as a religious person, she has ignored her obligations to her students and will "refuse to teach some of the inappropriate things."
Villalta further wraps herself in the ideals of the Christian Nationalist movement in the "Meet Raquel" section of her website. Embracing Christian victimhood, the candidate claims that the LAUSD discriminated against her based on "her sincerely held religious belief against the COVID shot when they removed her out of the classroom and eventually placed her on unpaid leave". Without complying with the District's vaccination policy, she could not enter any LAUSD campus, which would make teaching students very difficult.
What Villalta leaves out of her narrative is that as a reasonable accommodation for her "religious beliefs", she was initially assigned to the Virtual Academy where she did not have direct contact with students. It was only after this site became "over-teachered" that the District was unable to reasonably accommodate her.
With the LAUSD having abandoned most efforts to protect students and families who are medically fragile during the ongoing COVID crisis, including once again encouraging children to go to school even when they are sick, the vaccine requirement is the last remaining line of defense. While Villalta has the right to reject the COVID vaccine on religious grounds, this does not override the rights of children to attend school in a safe environment. Anyone with a true "passion for student success" would understand that.
Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs, who serves as the Education Chair for the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles." For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.
