CHINO, California (LifeSiteNews) —The head of a California board of education said she received death threats against herself and her children after helping to enact a policy requiring schools to inform parents of student decisions to identify as the opposite sex.
The Chino Valley (California) Unified School District (CVUSD) Board of Education last week adopted rules whereby schools must notify parents of a student’s request to identify with “a gender other than the student’s biological sex,” including through the desire to use different pronouns or a different name, or to use locker rooms and/or restrooms that “do not align with the student’s biological sex.”
CVUSD president Sonja Shaw soon after shared on “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” that a day after the decision her district received an anonymous phone call threatening to kill and “dismember” her.
“A lot of things were said, but one thing was very clear — this person was going to kill me, and they said they were going to dismember my body parts, my limbs more specifically,” Shaw told Perkins on Monday.
When she worked up the nerve to check her district email, she found her inbox flooded with other threats, saying “things like ‘You’re going to die,’ ‘your children are going to die,’ and ‘your animals are going to die,’” as well as a reference to what kind of animals she has to intimidate her.
“Thank God we have an amazing police department here that jumped on it right away,” said Shaw, later noting that her police department was amping up patrol around her house.
Shaw shared that Antifa members also posted on their website, “We declare war on Sonja Shaw,” writing things like, “We know where you sleep” and “Use all force possible to stop her.”
“To me, as nerve wracking as that is — because I’m a parent, I’m a mother — it was devastating. Because why are we doing this? To keep kids safe,” Shaw said.
She added that “God reminded her” through the ordeal “that these are the people that are after our children.”
“This is something that is way beyond me being able to be bold and courageous. And I just have to trust that I’m going to be protected,” she added.
“Sacramento has waged a war on parental rights, and a lot of it has to do with the perversion of our children,” Shaw told “Washington Watch” guest host Jody Hice, a former Georgia congressman, on Friday.
She explained how she ran for school board in an effort to fight back against California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s disturbing education mandates, and “God opened the doors” for her to issue the school policy on parental notification regarding “trans” kids.
When the Newsom administration learned of the forthcoming policy, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond arrived at the Thursday evening district meeting.
“It was a political stunt. He was trying to scare us,” Shaw said.
According to the school board president, Thurmond requested a private meeting with her before the district meeting but changed his mind when he learned she would stand firm in keeping the parental notification policy. Instead, he spoke out during the board meeting, claiming that the policy “may put our students at risk, because they may not be in homes where they can be seen.”
“Tony Thurman, I appreciate you being here, tremendously. But here’s the problem. We’re here because of people like you. You’re in Sacramento proposing things that pervert children,” she said.
Thurman returned to the podium requesting a “point of order” despite the fact that he is not a CVUSD board member and was eventually escorted out of the building by police, reported The Daily Signal.
The incident comes just days after Gov. Newsom threatened to fine a school board in nearby Temecula for refusing to teach state-endorsed history lessons featuring homosexual activist Harvey Milk.
Asked by Perkins if Newsom was “not fueling this vitriol and this hatred” being directed at herself and the school board, Shaw replied, “I would say he absolutely plays the biggest part in it. Sending Tony Thurman was proof of that.”
Erin Mellon, Newsom’s communications director, commented on the threats to Shaw at the request of Fox News, stating, “No one should ever resort to violence because they disagree.”
Shaw shared a statement with Fox News Digital from the Coalition for Parental Rights, which read, “We are extremely pleased and proud of Sonja Shaw and her board for passing a policy that acknowledges the important role parents play in the mental and emotional health of their children …
“Gender dysphoric children are not served by schools who hide their struggles from their parents. Schools should be encouraging the bond between students and their parents, not telling students to fear, distrust, and reject the people in their lives that love and care for them the most.”