On Monday, California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law legislation making his state the first in the nation to ban school districts from alerting parents of their children’s sexuality, or if they use pronouns or have adopted gender identities that conflict with those on their school records.
“This bill would prohibit school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and the state special schools, and a member of the governing board or body of those educational entities, from enacting or enforcing any policy, rule, or administrative regulation that requires an employee or a contractor to disclose any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent unless otherwise required by law.”
Assembly Bill 1955 states, “LGBTQ+ pupils have the right to express themselves freely at school without fear, punishment, or retaliation, including that teachers or administrators might ‘out’ them without their permission. Policies that require outing pupils without their consent violate pupils’ rights to privacy and self-determination.”
California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus Chair Susan Eggman celebrated, “Today is a great day for California. The Governor’s signature on AB 1955, a first-in-the-nation policy, reaffirms California’s position as a leader and safe haven for LGBTQ+ youth everywhere.”
“AB 1955 is an outrageous attempt to keep parents in the dark while schools indoctrinate kids with radical gender ideology,” said Harmeet Dhillon, CEO and Founder of the Center for American Liberty. “By signing the bill, Gov. Newsom is transferring power away from our local communities and centralizing it in Sacramento, blatantly undermining our democratic values.”
In July 2023, the Chino Valley Unified School District became the state’s first to require parental notification if a student adopted a transgender identity. The next month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a temporary restraining order to bar the district from implementing that policy.
“I can’t believe we’re at a point in America where authoritarians in power are fighting this hard to keep sexual secrets about children from their own parents,” Liberty Justice Center Board Member Corey DeAngelis stated. “They are now using the heavy hand of the state to subvert local control and try to strip away the most fundamental parental rights. I’m proud of the parents in Chino Valley Unified who are fighting back for their constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children. I’m proud to be a board member at Liberty Justice Center, fighting alongside them. We will win this war the authoritarians are waging on parents.”
After AB 1955 was introduced earlier this year, Jacob Huebert, the president of the Liberty Justice Center, which represented Chino Valley, declared, “Parents have a right to know what their own minor children are doing at school — and school officials have no right to keep secrets from parents. That’s true now, and it will still be true if the state passes this bill. We will continue to stand with parents and the school districts that want to respect their rights — and we’ll continue to represent them free of charge, at no cost to taxpayers.”
Several school districts in the state implemented parental notification policies, including Anderson Union High School District, Chino Valley Unified School District, Murrieta Valley Unified, Orange Unified School District, Rocklin Unified School District, and Temecula Valley Unified.
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