A California school board member reclaimed his seat on Wednesday in a special election after community members petitioned to remove him for speaking out against transgenderism.
In October, community members garnered enough signatures to force a special election to remove Kenneth Enney, a then newly appointed Paso Robles Joint Unified School District trustee, who had posted on Facebook stating that he rejects transgenderism within the LGBTQ movement. Enney won back his seat on Wednesday claiming 6,486 votes and ending with an 8.6% lead over his challenger, Angela Hollander, the former manager of an education non-profit, according to the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s Office. (RELATED: ‘A Positive Point Of The Night’: Grassroots Education Orgs Pick Up Key School Board Wins In Battleground States)
“I guess I kind of feel somewhat vindicated,” Enney told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “I’m more excited about the opportunity to go and correct the things that I’ve identified. $500,000 later we’re basically back where we were in October, $500,000 of the taxpayers dollars. To the community, I want to thank the the people that pushed this, that went after me and because they did they really gave me a platform to highlight the problems of the district [through my campaign.]”
In October, Enney denounced gender mutilation in a Facebook post and said that transgenderism has entered the schools to try to “recruit and convert children.” Following the post, Paso Robles residents petitioned to remove Kenney from the board and force a special election for his seat.
“You have a lot of people that have left the school district and a lot of it is over the progressive policies, basically the feeling that the LGBTQ agenda is being shoved down their throats,” Enney told the DCNF. “I basically made a stand and said I don’t have anything against the gay lifestyle or gay marriage. I have friends who are gay, I’m accepting of that. I honestly don’t understand the bi lifestyle or the queer lifestyle. So I guess I’m tolerant of that. But with transgenderism, I think what I reject is that you’re asking people to participate in a lie, because you can’t be something [you’re] not.”
A man leaves a polling station at the Benson School District Board Room in Benson, Arizona, on November 3, 2020. (Photo by ARIANA DREHSLER/AFP via Getty Images)
The petition needed at least 455 signatures to force the special election though it collected more than 800, according to The Tribune. The school district agreed to a special election that was estimated to cost around $493,000, though the exact cost has yet to be determined, Paso Robles Joint Unified School District told the DCNF.
With his seat reclaimed, Enney plans to address school discipline policies, combat student learning loss and expand charter schools within the district, he told the DCNF.
“[Paso Robles] has kind of become a battleground in the frontlines of the culture war,” Enney told the DCNF. “One of the things that I’ve tried to explain to people is yet you have to stand up or you have no right to complain about the poor education system.”
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