According to a recent report from Parents Defending Education, approximately 6,387 schools in 174 districts across the U.S. have policies in place that either allow or require teachers to keep information about students’ “gender identities” from their parents. Over 3.2 million students attend these schools, some of which are in California.
Thankfully, Assemblymen Bill Essayli (R-Riverside) and James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) recently introduced AB 1314, which would require school staff to notify parents within three days if they find that a student is identifying as the opposite gender.
Teachers would be required to tell parents if their child has adopted a name or pronoun of the opposite sex, is using the opposite sex’s bathrooms, or is participating in sports teams of the opposite sex.
Essayli announced the bill at a press conference on March 13 outside Jurupa Valley High School in Riverside County, where a teacher was fired for refusing to obey her employer’s directive to lie to parents about her students’ gender “transitioning.”
“Concealing information from parents is not only wrong, it is dangerous and harmful to the emotional and physical safety of trans-minors,” said Essayli. “This law will reset the appropriate relationship with educators and parents, and reaffirm that children are the domain of their parents and not the government.”
The California Family Council fully supports this legislation. “It is the job of parents to direct the upbringing of their children and to oversee their social development,” said CFC Capitol Director Greg Burt. “How can that happen when teachers are required to lie to parents regarding the struggles their children are experiencing with their gender identity?”
At the national level, U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa of California proposed similar legislation called “Parental Secrecy” policies under H.R. 1585.
LaMalfa authored the legislation in response to a case in northern California in which a fifth-grade girl met with a guidance counselor who determined she was a “boy” and “manipulated her into keeping her mom in the dark,” according to the Center for American Liberty (CAL).
California’s Department of Education claims that the school is banned from notifying parents of their children’s gender “transitions” while they assign new names and pronouns to the student, unless the student requests the school to notify the parents.
“Parents have a God-given right and duty to protect their children from this state-sponsored malpractice,” said Congressman LaMalfa.
“The fact that Chico Unified would support a guidance counselor making this decision in a matter of minutes is appalling,” he continued. “The fact that they are arguing in Court that they had a right to actively exclude a parent from this conversation while simultaneously publicly declaring this life changing decision to all the other students and teachers is incomprehensible. My bill will put a stop to this child endangerment and school bureaucrats going behind parent’s backs to transition children.”
These policies, at the local and national level, are absolutely essential. As gender ideology continues to spread through social contagion and activist teachers overstep their bounds at school, protecting children by safeguarding parental rights is paramount.
