By KENNETH SCHRUPP | THE CENTER SQUARE
The California Senate passed a bill that would ban parental notification for gender changes in public TK-12 and provide more resources to increase parental support of LGBTQ pupils. TK means “transitional kindergarten, a two-year kindergarten program.
While parents broadly support disclosure rules and have approved them in many school districts, state leaders, including the attorney general — who has supported lawsuits against districts with disclosure rules — say these efforts harm transgender children.
In the past year, school districts across California have adopted measures requiring parents to be notified if their children request to officially change their pronouns, go by a different name, or use facilities or school programs for children of the opposite gender.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has responded by supporting lawsuits against these school districts, with California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond supporting Assembly Bill 1955, a bill just passed by the California Senate and heading to the Assembly that would ban these parental notification requirements.
“AB 1955 protects our LGBTQ+ youth from increased risk of bullying and harassment, and it affirms families’ ability to handle family matters at home without school employees being forced to intervene,” said Thurmond in a statement. “The SAFETY Act will allow our teachers to focus on teaching academic skills – not on policing gender identity.”
Parental rights advocates maintain that this bill would likely be found unconstitutional and undermines children’s health and the trust between schools and parents.
“Notifying and involving parents for something as paramount as socially transitioning a child at school is critical for the well-being of children and for maintaining trust between schools and parents,” Jonathan Zachreson, whose Protect Kids California organization is collecting signatures for a November statewide ballot initiative requiring parental notification, told to The Center Square.
Liberty Justice Center, a legal nonprofit representing two California school districts and Protect Kids California in various cases against the state, reiterated their support for parental rights and said it would fight AB 1955 in court when it likely passes.
“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,” said Liberty Justice Center President Jacob Huebert in a statement. “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.”
While parental rights advocates focus on the trust between parents and the schools, LGBTQ advocates focus on trust between students and schools.
“Teachers should not be the gender police and violate the trust and safety of the students in their classrooms,” Assemblymember Christopher Ward, D-San Diego, who authored the bill, said. “Parents should be talking to their children, and the decision for a student to come out to their family members should be on their own terms. The SAFETY Act simply ensures that conversations about gender identity and sexuality happen at home without interference from others outside of the family unit.”
Earlier this year, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service stopped administering puberty blocking hormones to transgender minors, saying there is “not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness” of such procedures. The United States Supreme Court has recently supported the constitutionality of state laws banning gender hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery for transgender minors, suggesting parental rights advocates may have the upper hand if AB 1955 passes and a legal challenge goes to trial.
Wow! You can’t give an aspirin to a kid in K12 without written parental permission but you can do this.
Supreme Court Justice needs to start taking part in these ridiculous cases! Instead he is afraid his neighbor won’t invite him to Friday’s cocktail party!
I think the gay people … er I mean school has a good point.
I can’t imagine my teachers ratting me out to my mom for all the stuff I did when my mom wasn’t looking.
Sorry George, there is a big difference between getting caught smoking behind the bleachers at a game and changing your entire appearance and submit yourself to surgery, without reasonable input from the people who know you best and have a vested interest in your well-being.
BTW I don’t know what kind of teacher you had, but mine turned me in to my parents in no time flat, when my hormone addled teenage brain did stupid things.
The school doesn’t have a point in this. They are mandatory reporters and all this sex/grooming talk presents a clear conflict of interest. Teacher/school interact with kids for a certain period of time, then wash their hands of them, but parents have to deal with the consequences of their child’s indoctrination for the rest of their lives. They have a right to know.
How very Pol Pot of them.
Children can never give consent sexually. Never. Hence there is no such thing as a “trans” kid.
There are just adults trying to use children sexually. And most us know what should happen to those adults.
Dead on as usual.
What is the old saying?
A trans kid is like a vegan cat. Neither are making that decision for themselves.
Sounds like a way to gain more control of a childs’ mind…….something Hitler did to have the childrem follow him. I wonder what else they will keep from the parents………….???????
Leftists must destroy all interpersonal relationships in order to ensure everyone worships at the altar of the all powerful State. That includes the relationship a parent has with a child.
Californication
The people pushing this on children are disgusting. There is only one cure to fix this disease.
What country do we live in anymore?
Can’t bring myself to care anymore. This is what California worked hard to get to.
Let them revel in their stupidity.
But don’t be sad Anchorage. This is coming to you, too. Fast.
Great law. What kind of parent needs the school district to tell them what sex their kid thinks they are? This is a family issue. Funny the conservative outrage. Certainly this is an issue that only affects the leftist libs.
Leo, so you think this only affects leftist parents and kids? Are you saying they are the obtuse ones here?
You clearly do not have kids or grand kids in today’s schools. I recently visited a high school here in the state. I was dismayed to find universally on every single bulletin board, flyers from the Trevor project. These flyers made it clear that those who are in an alternative lifestyle are to be protected and elevated, while those conventional students are actually oppressed and cowed by societal norms from coming out as some form of alphabet individual. There is a subliminal message and I think parents have no idea, how much “teaching” on this subject is actually going on.
Next up:
Legalized adult-child sex. It’s coming to CA.
How about this insanity: I remember a few years back some PhD psychologist at U of Hawaii making claims that pedophilia was merely a lifestyle choice….
Comments are closed.