Voices for PYLUSD

Since taking their seats in December 2020, Trustees Blades, Youngblood, and Anderson have worked to eliminate COVID mitigation strategies, diversity and inclusion efforts, and curriculum that uses gender-affirming pronouns or mentions the existence of Black Lives Matter. In April 2022, the three of them successfully passed a Critical Race Theory Ban, the first of its kind in Orange County, despite petitions signed by 1000+ students and parents. In response, Cal State Fullerton has removed nearly all of its student teachers from PYLUSD and is refusing to send any more because they will no longer receive a full education here in the district. In November 2022, after an intense campaign season, moderate Trustee Carrie Buck kept her seat but the long-serving and moderate trustee, Karin Freeman, lost to Todd Frazier, an Evangelical YouTuber. 

Frazier campaigned on a "parental rights" platform.  He repeats the false talking point that “CRT divides us based on race” and plans to enforce the CRT ban. He wants to create a “reporting system” to track complaints about books, has complained about AB 1184, claiming medical clinics will come to campus to give students “medicine” and “shots” and “gender-affirming care” without parental consent, and has promised to “monitor SEL and Wellness programs.” Frazier has also said “we don’t need religion or politics in the classroom,” adding falsely that “pronouns issues and pushing transgenderism [is] a religious ideology.” In an interview with NPR, he said that “the classroom is not a place for anything other than academics and learning to respect authority.” Frazier told the NPR reporter there shouldn’t be LGBTQ clubs on campus.

Blades consistently checks messages on her phone before offering her ideas on resolutions or programs. She has taken the lead in taking Black students out of the May Mental Health Resolution, rejecting contracts with vendors who are inclusive of LGBTQ+ and social justice, bringing an anti-CRT ban, and revving up parent supporters around Covid-19 safety protocols. Her campaign targeted APLE, the local teachers union, and she continues to cast doubt on the union and on teachers as a whole. She has also said that she wants to get rid of all diversity months. 

Youngblood has said that "God called [him] to protect students" from sex education, ethnic studies, Black family diversity, transgender acceptance, globalism, social justice, and feminized men (see video at Cornerstone Church, 9/20/20). He most often follows Blades' lead, but has taken the initiative on anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, particularly around pronouns and transgender acceptance. Along with Blades, Youngblood was reprimanded by the OC District Attorney for a Brown Act Violation when he and Blades held an impromptu convening after the closing of a publicly announced meeting in February 2021. 

Anderson, like Blades and Youngblood, marketed herself as a "traditional values" conservative. She represents the majority-Latino trustee area, but was instrumental in denying El Camino Real HS's request to use Title 1 funds to bring Dr. Victor Rios and Scholar System to the school and supports a CRT-ban. She has said that she believes "racism is much diminished these days" (November 2021 meeting). However, Anderson is the most independent-minded of the three and has spoken eloquently for Ethnic Studies and for the maintenance of board tradition in the choosing of the new president.