California parents sue governor over law banning notification of student gender identity

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CNA Staff, Jul 17, 2024 / 13:20 pm (CNA).

Nine California parents are taking legal action against California Gov. Gavin Newsom after he signed a bill on Monday prohibiting parental notification policies that require schools to inform parents if their child requests to be treated as a gender other than his or her biological sex. 

The new law, Assembly Bill 1955, mandates that employees of school districts “shall not be required 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 state or federal law.”

The bill takes place amid a trend where growing numbers of minors identify as “transgender” — about 300,000 youths ages 13–17 identify this way now, according to a 2022 study by Williams Institute. 

Nine California parents, with the legal aid of the Texas-based nonprofit Liberty Justice Center (LJC), on Tuesday filed Chino Valley Unified School District v. Newsom in the District Court for the Eastern District of California against Newsom, state Attorney General Robert Bonta, and state school superintendent Tony Thurmond.

“School officials do not have the right to keep secrets from parents, but parents do have a constitutional right to know what their minor children are doing at school,”  said Emily Rae, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. 

The California bill argues that students have a right to self-expression at school. 

“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,” the bill stated. “Policies that require outing pupils without their consent violate pupils’ rights to privacy and self-determination.”

But Rae notes that these students are minors. 

“PK–12 minor students, most of whom are too young to drive, vote, or provide medical consent for themselves, are also too young to make life-altering decisions about their expressed gender identity without their parents’ knowledge,” she stated. “But that is precisely what AB 1955 enables — with potentially devastating consequences for children too young to fully comprehend them.” 

“Parents are the legal guardians of their children, not Gov. Newsom, Attorney General Bonta, or Superintendent Thurmond,” she added. “We will continue to defend parents’ rights and children’s well-being by challenging invasive laws like AB 1955 in court, at no cost to taxpayers.”

The complaint notes that parental notification exists for many cases, for instance, “if a student is injured, bullied, or exhibits suicidal behavior at school.” 

The bill follows a 2023 lawsuit by the attorney general against Chino Valley School District over the district’s parental notification requirement.

Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District, said in a May 24 statement following the proposal of the bill: “Parental notification policies are crucial because they foster trust between parents and schools.”

“These policies are a commitment to the community — they are a commitment that schools will not keep secrets from parents about their own children,” she continued. 

AB 1955 also puts in place protections for teachers against administration in relation to parental notification, which Shaw says is “misleading.”

“In addition, claiming teachers face retaliation is absurd. Teachers never handled parental notifications — district admins did,” she stated. “This provision is a smokescreen for a nonexistent problem. Children’s safety should never be second to unfounded fears of adults being retaliated against. This narrative is misleading and dangerous.”

Thurmond called the bill a “major step forward for the rights of students and families” in a July 15 California Department of Education press release.

“All of our students deserve to be safe at school in order to learn and thrive,” Thurmond stated. “Our LGBTQ+ youth need to be protected from bullying and harassment at school, and the families of our LGBTQ+ youth deserve privacy and dignity to handle deeply personal matters at home, without the forced intervention of school employees.”

“Our teachers can now focus on teaching the critical academic skills that our students need to succeed, not on policing the gender identities of children,” he added. 

AB 1955 is set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025. In the complaint, LJC is asking the court to declare AB 1955 unconstitutional and to prohibit the state government from enforcing the bill.