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Interview with Alexandria Coronado,
May 29, 2001
June 9, 2001 Life has not been the same for Anaheim Union
High School District (AUHSD) Board Member Dr. Alexandria Coronado
since her colleagues secretly voted 3-1 to put pro-homosexual
books into junior high and high school libraries. (She cast the
only "no" vote.) Ever since then, Coronado has been
the target of angry phone calls, including one person who "threatened
to come get me," she said.
The whole controversy started just after last Labor Day, when
a junior high school teacher discovered several brand new pro-homosexual
books in the school library. The teacher filed a formal complaint,
and the school district took them off the library shelves for
further review.
But on December 22, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the district,
claiming their review was taking too long. Over the Christmas
and New Year's Day holidays, Coronado herself reviewed these
books and quickly came to the conclusion that the books under
question were "inappropriate" for school children.
In January, the Pacific Justice Institute and other pro-family
legal groups, offered to take the school board's case, free of
charge. But the Anaheim School Board turned these requests down.
(Coronado, who has a doctorate in music education, was out of
town when the school board turned down these offers.)
In the next school board meeting, on February 22, a final
agreement with the ACLU was discussed, whereby the controversial
books would be allowed to stay in high school libraries. According
to Coronado, the superintendent expected a 4-0 vote to pursue
a settlement with the ACLU, as he "wanted a united front
in public." But Coronado would not back down, saying the
books should not be accessible to children. When it came time
for her to vote, Coronado said the superintendent said to her,
"You're going to abstain, right?" She refused, and
the vote was 3-1 to cut a deal with the ACLU.
When the final ballots were cast, the board members discussed
ways to keep this from going public. But as Coronado pointed
out, this was a violation of the Brown Act ­ a California
law which requires that meetings such as this be open to the
public.
On March 15, a settlement with the ACLU was finalized. Again,
the Anaheim School Board voted to accept the agreement, and again,
Alexandria Coronado cast the lone dissenting vote. The next day,
the ACLU issued a press release boasting of the settlement. They
even posted the settlement, which read in part, "AUHSD will
distribute its amended policy to all AUHSD principals, library
teachers, and library technicians, as well as a statement encouraging
library teachers 'to include, when selecting books for school
libraries, materials discussing controversial ideas and viewpoints
and materials representative of the AUHSD student population
in terms of sexual orientation.'"
Meanwhile, the Anaheim School Board said nothing to its constituents.
That is, until Coronado filed suit against them under the Brown
Act.
Since then, she has urged parents to call the district to
ask that the books be removed. Some parents even went to the
school libraries to look at the books. But they were kicked off
campus, even though they cited the Freedom of Information Act.
So what exactly made these books so controversial?
"One of the books, Beyond Gay or Straight, by Jan Clausen,
had graphic drawings of gay sex between two women or two men,"
said Coronado.
Other books included biographies of well-known homosexuals,
including former tennis player Martina Navratilova, the musician
Liberace, and economist John Maynard Keynes. However, the biography
of Liberace featured graphic details of his sexual exploits,
while the Keynes bio included a photo of him in a chair with
two naked boys on his lap.
If these books were all like the Martina Navratilova book,
we would not have a problem," said Coronado, who explained
that this biography said little about Navratilova's homosexuality.
"These books should not be in front of our kids."
"Since then, people have been calling me names, and now
the ACLU is suing me," said Coronado. "I'm not well
liked."
Or so she thought. Coronado recently attended the CENTER
FOR RECLAIMING AMERICA's 2001 Reclaiming America For Christ Conference
in nearby Newport Beach ­ the first such conference held
outside of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While attending, she got
to meet with many parents and other supporters in her district,
who told her they were praying for her. "[Attending the
conference] was really good for me," she said. "Sometimes,
you feel like you're standing all alone. But it's good to know
I have support."
Since the conference, Coronado has continued her campaign
to keep the homosexual agenda away from the children. She says
it has been hard to get parents active against this, since there
has been a virtual media blackout on this controversy, as well
as the radical, pro-homosexual bills crafted by the California
Legislature the past few years. "Most Californians don't
know, for example, that schools are now required to teach the
homosexual lifestyle to first graders," Coronado explained,
referring to a bill that was signed into law by Governor Gray
Davis last year.
"But I have found that when I show parents pictures
of what is in the books, and they do know what is going on, and
that this will affect their children, they want to know more."
"It is so encouraging to know that there are concerned
citizens out there like Alexandria, that are willing to make
a difference and get involved," said Janet Folger, national
director of the CENTER FOR RECLAIMING AMERICA. "Thanks to
her efforts, not only are parents informed about what their kids
are being given to read, but they have a voice in representing
them at the local level."
Source List: Interview with Alexandria Coronado, May 29,
2001.
American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California press
release, March 16, 2001. http://www.aclu-sc.org
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