Petitioners Begin Trustees Recall Drive

Organizers of a campaign to recall two Ventura County school board members held a news conference at the county courthouse Thursday to kick off their signature-gathering effort.

About a dozen recall supporters in attendance signed petitions to remove Wendy Larner of Ojai and Angela N. Miller of Ventura from the five-member board.

Carole Milligan, a Ventura physician, said she was appalled that board members had voted in March to suspend the use of Planned Parenthood and AIDS Care speakers at sex-education workshops for teachers.

Public health nurse Barbara Thorpe said the board’s action is an attempt to censor groups that board members personally find objectionable. Larner and Miller were both elected with backing from conservative Christian groups.

“We need to get back to the business of education,” Thorpe said. “This is about the health of our children and the right of the public to express its opinion and have it heard.”

Recall organizers need to collect about 15,000 signatures in each of the targeted board members’ electoral districts. Miller’s District 1 includes Ventura and north Oxnard and Larner’s District 3 covers Ojai, Camarillo, Santa Paula and Fillmore.

Opponents of the recall, meanwhile, have formed their own group and have vowed to defeat the effort. Their organization is called Citizens for Accountability in Public Education.

Larner and Miller could not be reached for comment Thursday.