(Daily Signal)—Students in a Southern California school district could be forced to choose between rooming with a transgender-identifying student or missing out on an overnight school field trip.

If parents complain about their child rooming with a transgender-identifying student of the opposite biological sex, staff in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District listen to the parents’ concerns, then say that the child’s rooming assignment isn’t the parents’ choice, according to emails from 2021 and 2022 obtained by the Center for American Liberty and shared with The Daily Signal.

The only option for students who are uncomfortable staying in a room with transgender students is to opt out of the trip, Sarah Coley, the school district’s administrative director, said in an email to school district employees regarding a sixth-grade science trip.

“You would say to the students/parents, ‘If you have questions about the assignment, please feel free to discuss with me,’” Coley wrote in the email. “Then, if a parent says ‘hey, I don’t want my student with [who],’ you could provide an ear to listen and consider whether the student is a good fit, but the eventual response would be, ‘If you / your student is not comfortable with the rooming assignments and process of staying with other students in a room, then they can elect not to participate in this optional trip.’”

Coley’s email continues: “Parents and students do not get to pick, and saying I don’t want to stay with ‘Susie’ because ‘Susie isn’t a real girl,’ is no different than saying, ‘I don’t want to stay with Sara because Sara is [white/older/non-religious, etc.]’”

Coley, a 2018 graduate of California State University Long Beach, did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

A mother who asked to remain anonymous due to concerns about threats to her family told The Daily Signal that parents should be able to assume their child is safe with school officials, but they can’t in the Newport-Mesa district. The mother said she chose to take her children out of the district and homeschool them a few years ago.

“You just have to assume that my child is not safe, which is really scary,” she said. “The school does not have your child’s best interest at heart. They are more concerned with social justice issues.”

Mark Trammell, executive director of the Center for American Liberty, the group that conducted the public records request, criticized what he called the Newport-Mesa school district’s inconsistency in using privacy rights to hide gender identity from parents while ignoring privacy rights in making rooming assignments.

“It is ironic that school districts cite a student’s right to privacy as justification for schools keeping secrets from parents, but completely disregard student privacy rights when forcing girls to room with a boy pretending to be a girl,” Trammell said in an email to The Daily Signal. “Either the right to privacy exists or it doesn’t; schools cannot selectively apply it when it advances their woke political narratives.”

Newport-Mesa is the same school district where a high school promoted an LGBTQ organization that helps minors find referrals for irreversible transgender surgeries and hormone regimens.

Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach, California, has scannable QR codes in its hallways that take students to an “LGBTQ+ Resources” webpage, including a link to “LGBTQ Affirming Therapy.”

The high school took down its resource page after the publication of The Daily Signal’s report on Wednesday.

Coley also championed “Sexuality and Gender Galaxies” in emails to school district staff members that provide definitions of terms, including “two spirit,” “asexual,” “polysexual,” “clear platonic,” and “androgynous.”

According to the emails, Coley also is the point of contact for “Gender Support Plans,” which ask the person filling out such a form to indicate the level of support of a student’s parents for his or her gender identity. Students ages 12 and older may formulate gender support plans in the Newport-Mesa school district without parental knowledge or consent.

The district hides these Gender Support Plans in a “locked drawer in the admin’s office,” emails show.

In an email Thursday to The Daily Signal, the Newport-Mesa school district denied that it uses such support plans.

“We do not refer students for gender-affirming care nor do we have gender support plans without parental involvement,” public relations officer Annette Franco wrote in the email. “The student-driven resources are intended to complement the essential role that parents play in their children’s lives.”

In another email to district staff, Coley said students as young as 2 years old may be transgender, so the school district should use preferred pronouns for all ages—and respect the wishes of students of all ages to hide his or her gender identity from parents.

“The student’s age is not a factor,” Coley wrote in the email. “For example, children as early as age two are expressing a different gender identity.”

“It is strongly suggested that teachers privately ask transgender or gender nonconforming students at the beginning of the school year how they want to be addressed in class, in correspondence to the home, or at conferences with the student’s parents,” Coley wrote.

The administrator said that intentionally using a student’s given name and personal pronouns instead of their preferred ones qualifies as “harassment.”

“If a member of the school community intentionally uses a student’s incorrect name and pronoun, or persistently refuses to respect a student’s chosen name and pronouns, that conduct should be treated as harassment,” Coley said in the email. “That type of harassment can create a hostile learning environment, violate the transgender student’s privacy rights, and increase that student’s risk for harassment by other members of the school community.”

“Our house has been broken into twice,” Sue Chilton told convention delegates. “A Border Patrol agent was shot five times by drugs smugglers on our ranch. The cartel drug smugglers are crossing our nation’s border every day. They are bringing lethal drugs into our country.”

The Chiltons’ security cameras have spotted more than 3,500 drug traffickers and others in camouflage marching through their ranch, according to Jim Chilton, a fifth-generation rancher in Arivaca.

“These are not asylum-seekers,” he said. “It looks like and it feels like an invasion, because it is.”

Things were different when Donald Trump was president, the Chiltons believe.

“Under President Donald Trump, it wasn’t like this, and if we bring him back,” Jim Chilton said, “I know he’ll stop it again.”

“We know firsthand that Biden’s open border is our nation’s greatest national security threat,” he continued. “We need to make America safe again.”

Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border was almost finished on the Chilton family’s ranch when Biden became president and halted construction of the wall.

“Since then, crossings on our ranch have increased fivefold,” Jim Chilton said.

“We must elect Donald Trump to finish the wall, to stop the cartels, to keep America safe and strong,” he said.

The crowd erupted with several resounding cheers of “Build that wall!”

David Lara, owner of a small business who lives in a border town, said small towns like his bear the brunt of the border chaos.

“Imagine strangers terrorizing your homes, your neighbors, your yards, the local schools,” Lara said. “Imagine being treated as second-class citizens as chaos and crime terrorize streets.”

“I don’t have to imagine this,” he continued. “I’ve watched it with my own eyes. I’ve seen my town suffer.”

Lara blames the Biden administration’s border policies.

“Biden and [Vice President] Kamala Harris want the illegal immigration crisis to continue, and no amount of suffering has changed their mind or convinced them to finally put Americans first,” he said.

“We must reelect President Trump to close the border the crime and stop the drug from pouring in,” Lara said. “We must reelect President Trump to imprison and deport violent gang members, instead of coddling them as they terrorize our nation.”

The former chief diversity officer, Richmond Wynn, was not fired, but given a new title—vice president of community engagement and partnerships.

In the new role, Wynn is responsible for “developing and implementing comprehensive strategies to establish and enhance mutually beneficial relationships between the university and communities, stakeholders, and industry partners,” according to his LinkedIn profile.

He also “works with other UNF departments to facilitate and promote on-campus community engagement activities that embed civility and a culture of care throughout UNF, institutional values that support a safe and welcoming environment for all students, faculty and staff.”

Wynn did not respond to a request for comment.

When asked if the job description means Wynn will continue to promote DEI-related initiatives at UNF, a spokeswoman for the university said the closing of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and its centers is in response to Florida state Senate Bill 266 and regulations approved by the Florida Board of Governors of the State University System of Florida.

Signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last May, the law bars public colleges and universities from spending taxpayer dollars on DEI programs.

“By this week, all the centers were officially closed,” UNF Media Relations Manager Amanda Ennis told The Daily Signal. “Some staff members have left the University for other job opportunities. All other employees have moved to other open positions in the university that are not related to DEI.”

UNF announced in January that it would begin phasing out the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. University President Moez Limayem said that no staff members would lose their jobs as a result, but would be assigned to work in other departments with the same or higher salary.

The new role of Sheila Spivey, who was previously assistant vice president of diversity and inclusion, could not be found online, and an emailed request to her for comment bounced back with an “out of office” notice. Brandi Winfrey, director of inclusive excellence, has not changed her job title on LinkedIn and did not respond to a request for comment.

The diversity office staff also included two administrators, and two to three employees for each center.

UNF will continue offering a handful of DEI-related courses in the fall 2024 semester, according to the course catalog, including Introduction to Educational Leadership for Social Justice; Race, Gender, and Politics; Sex, Race, and Social Class; and Difference, Discrimination, and Oppression.

The latter course addresses “issues of power, inequality, privilege, discrimination and the resulting oppression,” according to the course description.

“Course material will use a social justice perspective for the study of and practice with oppressed groups at all system levels, including those distinguished by race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, immigration status, religion and social class,” the description adds.

The webpage that once displayed UNF’s DEI resources now shows “Access Restricted” result, with this message: “You do not have permission to access this resource.”

The page previously included UNF’s “Inclusive Excellence” strategic plan, as well as information on its Intercultural Center, Interfaith Center, LGBTQ Center, and Women’s Center, according to a Wayback Machine internet search.

“Inclusive Excellence employs a broad and inclusive definition of diversity that includes genetic information, race, ethnicity, color, religion, age, sex, ability, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, veteran status and other important social dimensions that are part of the campus community,” the strategic plan said.

The LGBT Center offered resources on “preferred” personal pronouns, transgenderism, and more.

“Pronouns are a reflection of someone’s gender identity, and to ignore that is to say that their identity isn’t valid,” the resource on pronouns said. “Even when the person isn’t around, using the correct pronouns to refer to them says to those around you that you acknowledge the person’s identity, regardless of how you feel about the person, and encourages others to do the same.”

The page includes a list of common pronouns, as well as “neo” pronouns, such as “Xe/Xem/Xyr,” “Ey/Em/Eir,” “Zie/Zim/Zir,” “Ve/Ver/Vis,” and “Ne/Nem/Nir.”

The Women’s Center was “committed to advocating for gender equality and improving the status of women.”

“We recognize that gender inequalities are deeply connected to other areas of disenfranchisement and oppression in our society,” the archived webpage reads. “Therefore, our programs and services strive to value and promote respect for all differences. This means that women and men and people of all races, cultures, and sexual orientations are welcome in the Women’s Center.”

The Diversity Office webpage also included a statement in support of anti-racism.

“Examining biases and exclusionary practices, and promoting integrity, inclusivity, and ultimately excellence, enhances our personal development, relationships with others, well-being, and global citizenship,” part of the statement reads.

Some UNF students voiced their complaints about the office’s closure on Wednesday.

“I think it’s a travesty we’re shutting down such great resources,” student Emily Roles told WJXT-TV in Jacksonville, Florida.

The UNF Diversity Office closure closely follows the shutdown of DEI at the University of Florida. The home of the Gators sports teams closed an office for a chief diversity officer and eliminated other DEI positions in March, and is reviewing whether the remaining Center for Multicultural Engagement and Inclusion violates state law.

While University of Florida fired DEI personnel, Florida State University took an approach similar to UNF’s, changing the titles and classifications of employees who were in related positions.

The Board of Governors is in the process of reviewing programs in Florida universities to ascertain whether they violate state laws prohibiting DEI instruction, Communications Director Cassandra Edwards told The Daily Signal. She said that programs in state schools found to violate the law will be “eliminated.”

“As this is an ongoing, deliberate process, it will not conclude overnight,” she said. “But rest assured, thanks to Gov. DeSantis’ leadership, state or federal funds will not be used for DEI by Florida’s universities.”