Despite a federal court challenge, the California Attorney General’s Office is standing behind a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this month that bars school districts from informing parents about their children's gender identities, and which critics say allows schools to illegally interfere with parents' constitutional rights to direct the raising of their children.
The Chino Valley Unified School District and numerous self-described devout Christian parents filed a federal lawsuit July 16 in the Eastern District of California, arguing that Assembly Bill 1955 violates their First and 14th Amendment rights and the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
AB 1955 is titled the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth (SAFETY) Act.
The lawsuit indicates that “numerous studies” show transgender students suffer high levels of emotional abuse and suicidal thoughts, although no specific studies are cited in the complaint.
“Faced with these concerns, various California school districts have adopted policies under which the school respects the wishes of students who ask to be treated as a gender different from their natal sex, while also making parents aware that the school is participating in the social transition of their child,” the lawsuit states.
AB 1955, however, would block such school district actions and bar school district employees from disclosing information about gender transition to any other person without the student’s consent.
“This means that, no matter how young a child is, a school cannot tell the child’s parents the school is socially transitioning their child without the minor’s ‘consent,’” the lawsuit says.
But the Attorney General’s Office views the new law, which would take effect on Jan. 1, 2025, as taking a stand against the “forced outing” of students.
“The SAFETY Act reaffirms students’ constitutional and statutory rights not to be subjected to forced outing at school, and it also reaffirms that forced outing policies and any form of retaliation against teachers, parents and allies who protect students against such constitutional and statutory harms are a clear violation of state law,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement emailed to the Southern California Record.
Assaults on LGBTQ+ rights in California and elsewhere have been on the rise, according to Bonta, and public schools need to take steps to ensure that all students feel they are in a safe environment on campus.
“As we continue to reinforce California’s commitment to provide safe and inclusive educational spaces that uphold the rights of all students, my office commends the LGBTQ Caucus for their leadership, and Gov. Newsom for signing the SAFETY Act into law, to ensure no student is ever forcibly outed against their will, especially when such disclosure could result in serious harm,” he said.
But Emily Rae, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, which is representing the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit, said minor children enrolled in public schools are too young to provide medical consent for themselves and are too young to be making life-altering decisions.
“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,” Rae said in a prepared statement. “Parents are the legal guardians of their children, not Gov. Newsom, Attorney General Bonta or Superintendent (of Public Instruction Tony) Thurmond. 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 lawsuit seeks a judgment that AB 1955 violates the First and 14th Amendments, as well as FERPA, and an order restraining defendants from enforcing the measure. As an alternative, the plaintiffs suggest the court could issue an order concluding that the Chino Valley board’s policy does not violate AB 1955.