Last week, a state judge made permanent his injunction against two parts of a gender parent notification policy implemented by a California school district trying to stop teachers from secretly transitioning students without parents’ knowledge. Ironically, Chino Valley Unified School District had already removed those two parts of the policy and instead kept the original part of the policy the state judge deemed constitutional.
So, while California Attorney General Rob Bonta is touting Judge Michael Sachs’s decision as a victory, the decision is really a setback for his fight against gender notification policies and parental rights. Chino Valley Unified School’s school board president, Sonya Shaw, understands this, calling the decision a “monumental victory for parental rights.”
“For too long, Bonta, Thurmond, and Newsom have pushed harmful agendas that attempt to strip parents of their fundamental right to know what’s happening in their children’s lives. Their argument that children could be kept in the dark from their parents has officially been rejected by the courts,” Shaw explained in a statement. “While we are disappointed with the court’s decision on sections 1.a and 1.b of our parental notification policy and plan to appeal, this victory sends a powerful message: parents will not back down, and we will continue to fight for our children. The court’s acknowledgment that schools may inform parents of changes to their children’s records is a significant step forward in ensuring transparency and accountability in our schools.”
Chino Valley’s original policy to inform parents when a school was facilitating a child’s gender change, approved in July of last year, had three parts when originally introduced. The first two parts required parents to be notified within three days if a child requested to be treated as a gender different than their biological sex, or if they asked to be on a sports team or use a bathroom or changing facility that doesn’t align with their biological sex. Using California’s laws declaring gender identity as a protected class, the judge declared those sections of the policy “discriminatory on their face.”
Yet the judge declared the third part of the Chino Valley notification policy as “neutral and passed the rational basis.” This part of the policy simply requires parents to be notified if a student is “requesting to change any information contained in the student’s official or unofficial record.” With this policy in place, the first two parts of the notification policy are not technically needed, because when children are transitioned at school, teachers and administration have to change a child’s official or unofficial records so that everyone at school is aware of the child’s new name and pronoun.
Recognizing this fact, Shaw and her Chino Valley Unified school board updated their policy last March and eliminated the two parts of the policy that Judge Sachs didn’t like, keeping the notification policy requiring parents to be informed when a student changes their official or unofficial records.
“Last week’s ruling is a powerful affirmation of parents’ fundamental right to be involved in their children’s lives. Despite the judge striking down parts of the parent notification policy that we believe are perfectly constitutional, he also affirmed that parents have a ‘long-established fundamental interest in the care and custody of their children,’” said Greg Burt, Vice President of the California Family Council. “With this ruling, we hope school boards throughout the state will now adopt policies that inform parents every time their children change their official or unofficial records for any reason. Everyone needs to stand up for transparency and the rights of parents to guide their children’s futures.”
