A new law prohibiting school districts from requiring parents to be informed of their child’s gender identity shift was sued by a Southern California school district on Tuesday. The district and the state are embroiled in a legal dispute over the district’s gender identity policy. The governor is a Democrat.
A few parents and the Chino Valley Unified School District claimed the statute infringes upon the rights of parents guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
District attorney Emily Rae issued a statement saying, “Parental knowledge of their minor child’s activities at school is guaranteed under the constitution, however, school administrators are not allowed to withhold information from parents.”
However, Izzy Gardon, a spokesman for Newsom, described the lawsuit as “deeply unserious” and claimed that the new law “preserves the child-parent relationship.”
“According to federal law, parents are still granted complete access to their children’s academic records, and California law prohibits minors from legally changing their name or gender without their parents’ permission,” Gardon wrote in an email. “We have no doubt that the state will win this case quickly.”
A rule that Chino Valley Unified’s board enacted last year mandating school employees to notify parents if their children change their gender identity or pronouns has Attorney General Rob Bonta suing the district. According to Bonta, students who identify as gender non-conforming face discrimination from the law. The district then amended the policy to generally require parents to be alerted if their child requests to make any changes to their student records after a judge halted it while the case was being resolved.
While opponents claimed the prohibition made it more difficult for schools to be open and honest with parents, LGBTQ rights groups applauded the new California law.
With a few exceptions, districts are not allowed to require school personnel to reveal a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation to anyone else without the student’s consent, according to a law that Governor Newsom signed on Monday. Additionally, it mandates that the state Department of Education create materials for families of LGBTQ students enrolled in seventh- through high school. January will see the law go into force.
The ban’s supporters claim that it will safeguard students who identify as transgender or who identify as gender non-conforming and who are in hostile homes.
Tony Hoang, executive director of LGBTQ advocacy group Equality California, said in a statement “This important law provides resources for parents and families of LGBTQ+ students to support them as they have conversations on their terms, strengthens protections for LGBTQ+ youth against forced outing policies, and establishes vital safeguards to prevent retaliation against educators and other school personnel who work to create a safe and supportive learning environment for all students.”
However, the California Family Council and other conservative organizations said that the measure infringes on parents’ rights.
“This bill potentially jeopardizes boys and girls and undermines their fundamental role,” stated the president of the council, Jonathan Keller, in a statement. “AB 1955 egregiously violates the sacred trust that parents have to guide and protect their children, as mandated by both the Constitution and divine law.”
Billionaire Elon Musk announced that, in part, the new law will force him to relocate the social media platform X and SpaceX’s headquarters from California to Texas. In 2021, Tesla, the company led by Elon Musk, relocated its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin.
The new rule was enacted in response to measures imposed by a number of Californian school districts mandating that parents be informed when a child asks to change their gender identity. Democratic state officials retaliated against that, arguing that pupils have a right to privacy. The rights of local school districts, parents, and LGBTQ+ kids have been the subject of nationwide debates among legislators, families, and campaigners.
According to Associated Press research, at least six states impose obligations on schools to notify parents when a youngster discloses their gender identity or requests to be addressed using a different pronoun. These states are Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Virginia does not have legislation, but school boards have been requested to adopt comparable rules.
While they do not address gender expression or sexual orientation, Arizona and Idaho also mandate that schools give parents access to specific information.
Attorney General Matt Platkin filed lawsuits against four school districts in New Jersey last year, alleging that their policies breached an anti-discrimination statute that only permits the sharing of gender expression information with a student’s family with that student’s consent or in cases where the student’s health and safety are in danger.
The Pacific Justice Institute, the Goldwater Institute, and the Family Policy Alliance are among the conservative organizations that have tried to get involved in the legal dispute.
States have added their voices to litigation concerning local school districts’ treatment of transgender kids. For example, a woman in Chico, California, complained last year that school administrators had permitted her child to socially transition without her consent. To support her, 23 Republican state attorneys general signed a brief. On the opposing side, sixteen Democratic attorneys general submitted a brief.