In 2002, to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by a Golden West student, the ACLU, and the GSA Network, the Visalia Unified School district agreed to the following consent decree. The decree was valid until June 30, 2005, with an extension to June of 2007 if VUSD failed to complete the agreement. In it, the District agreed to the following:

  • Adopt policies explicitly forbidding staff or student harassment or discrimination based on gender or sexual orientation;
  • Name “”compliance coordinators”” to help parents, students and teachers with incidents of discrimination;
  • Establish a community advisory group to help address discrimination and assess how the settlement is working.

It also required the District to facilitate any student requests to form a LGBT-related school club, and make the efforts to find a teacher willing to be the club’s advisor. Materials regarding discrimination and LGBT rights, staff training, student training, and protection from retaliation were parts of the agreement.

Flash forward to 2026.

Redwood High School students, on Senior picture day, decided to arrange tshirts with letters and numbers on them to form the derogatory “2FAG60TS” seen above. Students posted the images to social media, and the community erupted. See previous posts on this blog for further information.

It may be time for VUSD to dig into their storage units and dust off the materials required by the decree. They clearly need some review.

The next VUSD Board of Trustees meeting is Tuesday, March 10, 2026. It will be held at the Board room, VUSD, 5000 W. Cypress, Visalia, California, at 5:30 pm. A large crowd is expected.

Here is the consent decree as agreed to between VUSD, the student George Loomis, the ACLU, and the Gay Straight Alliance Network.

consent_decreeDownload