Santa Ana Unified School District board member Brenda Lebsack is facing scrutiny from her colleagues and was recently censured for public remarks about transgender athletes during a discussion about National Arab American Heritage Month. 

The comments that drew the ire of the school board were made by Lebsack during a school board meeting on April 22, when board members voted to proclaim April as National Arab American Heritage Month, with Lebsack abstaining and calling  for a proclamation focused on Arab Muslims and the “religious rights of all students.”  

Lebsack also spoke about a meeting she attended with Assemblyman Avelino Valencia at the Islamic Center of Santa Ana, when she said they discussed “educational and athletic bills that impact their families, cultural and religious values.” 

“They discussed bills to protect girls sports and spaces and expressed their united opposition of allowing biological males to compete against female athletes or invade their private safe spaces in locker rooms or bathrooms,” Lebsack said during the April 22 meeting. 

At the May 20 meeting, school board members Valerie Magdaleno and Katelyn Brazer Aceves criticized Lebsack’s comments.  

“Unfortunately, Miss Lebsack’s continued promotion of anti-trans rhetoric disguised as governance falls outside the scope of ethical leadership and directly contradicts the inclusive values that this board has pledged to uphold,” Magdaleno said. 

Brazer Aceves echoed similar sentiments. 

“I support this resolution because it reaffirms our commitment to maintaining a safe, respectful environment for all students. Words matter, especially when they come from individuals in positions of public trust,” Brazer Aceves said. 

During the meeting, Lebsack said many people are concerned about transgender and gender nonconforming athletes. 

“I was very shocked that this would have such a strong outcry. I just think a lot of people believe that way, that they want to protect girls’ spaces,” Lebsack said.

She also repeated her comments about transgender athletes. 

The board voted 4-1 with Lebsack dissenting to censure herself during the school board meeting on May 20. 

It comes just after school board members voted to lay off 262 employees the day before the censure vote. 

[Read: Santa Ana School District Lays Off 262 Employees]

Lebsack’s censure also comes a day before school board trustees at Capistrano Unified School District – one of the biggest in Orange County – narrowly adopted a resolution in support of fairness in girls sports and in opposition of transgender athletes in women’s competitions.

The censure serves as a formal reprimand for specified conduct when comments are made against policies, according to the board’s attorney.  It doesn’t take away any rights of the sitting board member.    

In May 2023, the Santa Ana Unified School board members overhauled policies on transgender and gender nonconforming athletes. 

According to the policy section on locker rooms, “Transgender and gender nonconforming students should be allowed access to locker room facilities that align with their gender identity. Transgender and gender nonconforming students, however, shall not be forced to use the locker room corresponding to their assigned sex at birth.”

To read the full policy, click here. 

It’s not the first time local school board officials have faced some criticism for public comments made and policies they’ve supported. 

Some Orange Unified School board members were met with backlash after adopting policies like banning the pride flag and requiring school officials to notify parents if their child is transgender. 

Recall efforts were launched and voters ultimately removed Orange Unified board members Madison Miner and Rick Ledesma from office in March 2024. 

[Read: Two Orange Unified School District Trustees Booted From Office]

Most recently, Huntington Beach city officials voted to adopt a similar notification law for city facilities.

[Read: Huntington Beach Moves to Adopt Transgender & Sexuality Notification Law]

Stephanie Camacho-Van Dyke, a senior director of advocacy and education at the LGBTQ Center OC, criticized Lebsack’s comments at the May 20 Santa Ana Unified School board meeting meeting. 

“As school board members, each of you have the responsibility to ensure that our schools are places of belonging and growth, not platforms for political grandstanding or personal agendas that dehumanize or vilify our trans students. When an elected official uses their position to spread misinformation and pit communities against each other, it undermines the very foundation of public education,” Camacho-Van Dyke said.

President of the Santa Ana Unified school board, Hector Bustos, said it’s within the school board’s purview to distance itself from Lebsack’s comments.

“It is well established that school boards have the inherent authority to control the decorum in order of their meetings and to uphold the integrity of board accepted governance and personnel policies. It is also well settled that school boards retain the right to dissociate themselves from the remarks of an individual board member, school boards are entitled to deplore the mechanism of censure to accomplish these ends,” Bustos read.    

Lebsack ran for SAUSD in 2024 on the platform of transparency in the schools and ousting the district for “deceiving parents” with their policy for transgender and gender non-conforming students. She was previously a member of the Orange Unified School District until 2020. 

Gigi Gradillas is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at gigi.gradillas@gmail.com or on Twitter @gigigradillas.