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September 8, 2023
By Brian Hews
The ABCUSD Board meeting this past September 5 was cruising along speedily until Trustee Soo Yoo, who apparently has joined with right-wing culture war groups such as We the Parents and Moms for Liberty, pulled out a four-page speech during board comment spouting right-wing memes and suggesting that students and parents of ABCUSD should consider homeschooling or alternative schools.
Moms for Liberty is a far-right organization that engages in anti-student inclusion activities and identifies as part of the “modern” parental rights movement.
The group grew out of opposition to public health regulations for COVID-19, opposes LGBTQ+ and racially inclusive school curricula, and has advocated book bans.
It was another bombshell from Yoo in line with her racist comments that “Mexicans should stop having Quinceneras and save their money,” and that “blacks should get over that slavery thing.”
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Yoo began her rant saying, “We are implementing these far-left radical policies, and as a result, I just see a lot of blame-shifting, parents suing the system, lies and deception in the media while youth and educators are under pressure to focus on complying with state laws and policies.”
Yoo then blasted the implementation of Common Core, insinuating that ABC students are behind in math, “ABC was doing just fine before Common Core. In recent years, math skills have declined, and ABC students are less prepared for higher math, which is bad news for students who want to pursue STEM.
“We have to face the reality of the push from Sacramento. The promiscuous sex education, gender-affirming attack on parent rights. This indoctrination not only harms students but so many educators are also offended by this also.”
Yoo then spoke about options that drew audible gasps from attendees, “if the parents don’t like what’s going on in their district, the parents should know about the options to either homeschool their child or consider alternative education.”
An interesting comment given that Yoo owns a private tutoring company in Cerritos just one mile from ABCUSD offices.
Yoo finished, “Either homeschool or alternative education you can choose. Sacramento will continue to push down Assembly bills and Senate bills that will attack parent’s rights.”
There was silence for a few seconds, then a visibly angry Trustee Olga Rios was recognized by President Brad Beach, “I have to speak about the comments made today. Among the issues that Board member Yoo mentioned, a big issue has been the undermining of public education by certain individuals who want to push their own agenda, which stands against everything public education stands for. Advocating for kids to join a non-public school…. that’s not what we do up here Board member Yoo. We stand behind the emblem of the Department of Education, we don’t stand against it. I am really troubled by your comments tonight.’
No other board member chose to speak about Yoo’s incendiary comments, except for ABC Federation of Teachers President Ray Gaer who stepped up to the dais and vilified Yoo.
“Thank you Dr. Rios for speaking up. It’s really disturbing to hear the person who has the number one high school in California in her trustee area [Whitney High] speak about how public school is doing a disservice to students. We’re all dealing with declining enrollment and that is having an impact on what we can provide in education. It’s a shame that somebody who’s on a public education board is actually advocating for homeschooling, which would take away funding from the school district. Ms. Yoo, I’m sorry you’re advocating for that, makes it really hard to be on any page with you. We have our differences but we all believe in public education…. or why the heck would you be on the board for public education if you didn’t believe it. You are so hypocritical!”
