The Hate Slate

Deena Kaplanis

A Record Out of Step With Our Students' Rights

Trustee Deena Kaplanis is seeking another four-year term representing Area 5. Before you vote, look at what she has said and done at board meetings.

She urged the board to act outside of state law. In 2023, Kaplanis asked the board to “adopt the language of AB 1314,” a bill the Legislature has never passed. It would have required teachers, counselors, and other staff to notify parents in writing within three days of learning that a student identifies as a gender different from the one assigned at birth. Boards that have tried to write their own version of this policy have faced costly litigation.

She cast the only no vote on the annual Pride Resolution. On May 12, 2026, four trustees voted to recognize June as LGBTQ Pride Month. Kaplanis voted no. In her remarks she said the resolution “promotes an ideology that has already been weaponized against children in our own district.”

She described a bullying incident as expressing an opinion. Kaplanis told the board that a Granada High School student was suspended for saying a classmate “used to be a girl,” and that he “simply refused to fully endorse the preferred narrative.” Speakers at the next meeting described the same incident as harassment of a transgender student. California Education Code and district policy protect LGBTQ students, and a trustee’s role is to uphold those protections. Instead, Kaplanis took the side of the bully.

Words and votes. Kaplanis told the board she loves all children equally, but her votes show her to be a hypocrite. One parent and PFLAG Tri-Valley board member responded that the board’s job is “to uphold California Education Code, not rewrite it.” Another speaker told her that love “shows up in your actions.” Her votes and statements are on the public record, and residents can watch the video of the May 12 meeting for themselves.

Read her full statement

Below is the complete transcript of Trustee Kaplanis’s remarks before the May 12, 2026 vote on the Pride Resolution, so you can judge her words in full.

“Before we move to a vote, I just want to make something…crystal clear publicly. However people would perceive this, but I do want to say that I don't see any child different. I value all children equally. I love them all equally, or else I wouldn't be in the position I am right now. Um, this resolution, though, promotes an ideology that has already been weaponized against children in our own district.

At Granada High School, a student was suspended simply because he referred to a biologically female classmate as someone who used to be a girl. He simply refused to fully endorse the preferred narrative. For that, he was suspended and later denied a transfer to another district. This, in part of a larger… this is part of a larger pattern. We are seeing puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and surgeries on minors. Multiple public, multiple [interruption by Board Trustee Bueno] Multiple European countries have banned these procedures. At the same time, biological males are taking spots from girls in sports and private spaces.

I will not vote to advance an agenda that pushes children from telling the truth. And I also want to thank everybody that came to speak tonight on both sides.”

Source: May 12, 2026 board meeting starting at 03:44:28

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