California’s attorney general has sued a Southern California school district over its new policy requiring schools to notify parents if their children change their gender identification or pronouns.
State Attorney General Rob Bonta is seeking a court order to immediately block a policy adopted by Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD).
As CBN News reported, the school’s policy says officials will notify parents in writing within three days if a child requests:
- To be identified or treated as a gender other than the student’s biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate or any other official records
- To use a name that differs from their legal name or use pronouns that do not align with the student’s biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate or other official records
- To access sex-segregated school programs and activities, including athletic teams and competitions, or using bathroom or changing facilities that do not align with the student’s biological sex or gender.
Murrieta Unified School District has approved a similar policy and the Orange Unified School District is also considering a similar policy.
The lawsuit is the latest move in an intensifying battle between a handful of school districts and the state about the rights of students and their parents.
Bonta said policies like the one adopted by CVUSD will out transgender students and threaten their well-being.
“For far too many transgender children and gender nonconforming youth, school serves as their only safe haven – a place away from home where they can find validation, safety, and privacy. We have to protect that,” he said. He argued that the policy discriminates against the students and violates the state constitution’s requirement of equal protection for all.
Chino Valley Board President Sonja Shaw told ABC News the lawsuit is no surprise to her and the state has repeatedly taken steps “to shut parents out of their children’s lives.”
“We will stand our ground and protect our children with all we can because we are not breaking the law,” she told the outlet. “Parents have a constitutional right in the upbringing of their children. Period.”
Shaw and supporters say parents have a right to know the decisions their children are making in schools.
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“We are giving parents a voice,” she shared during a press conference last week. “It doesn’t matter if you are Democrat or Republican. It doesn’t matter what party you affiliate with. It doesn’t matter what religious background you come from. We all come together because parents have a right and we want to protect our children.”
“Their goal was to break up the family unit and take control of our children,” said Shaw. “When we push back they do unethical things to quiet us.”
In July, Shaw told “Washington Watch With Tony Perkins” that she immediately faced death threats after the board issued its new parental notification policy.
“The next morning, our district got a phone call. A lot of things were said, but one thing was very clear — this person was going to kill me, and they said they were going to dismember my body parts, my limbs more specifically,” Shaw told Perkins during the show.
“They want control, and we’re…going to stand up to the government bullies,” she recently told CBN’s Faithwire.
CVUSD is leading the way on the school policy that will also notify parents if a child is suicidal, is a victim of bullying, or gets seriously injured.
“Developing this policy is sending a message back that … we’re done,” Shaw said. “We’re done with them trying to break up the family unit. Parents need to be involved.”
She continued, “And to be quite honest, to assume that parents are dangerous, I think, is a dangerous thing, and I think it’s vile coming from the government — that they’re assuming that parents, right off the bat, are dangerous to their children.”
A spokesperson for Chino Valley Unified told ABC News the district is working with its attorneys to review the lawsuit and is providing state officials with the requested documents in response to the subpoena.
READ ‘Leave Our Kids Alone’: CA Parents Push Back Against State’s Aggressive LGBT Ideology
The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at CBN