(UnitedVoice.com) – There’s a fight brewing in California between the liberal state government and a conservative school district. Democrats have pushed for schools to put the LGBTQ+ agenda over parental rights across the country. That has led parents to rise up, and demand officials respect their authority.
In California, the Chino Valley Unified School is battling the state over this issue. The district has made its own rules that defy the state, and now they’re headed to court.
A Fight Over Students
The fight between the school district and California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) began in July. The Chino Valley Unified School District passed a measure that requires staff to inform parents or guardians within three days if a student requests “to be identified or treated” as another gender. They are also to report if the student tries to use facilities in the school that do not correlate to their biological sex and if they ask for their school records to be changed.
Bonta warned the school district that its new policy was likely illegal. At the beginning of August, he opened a civil rights investigation. The Los Angeles Times reported the probe was a way to demonstrate his “commitment to challenging school policies” that he believes discriminate against residents in vulnerable communities.
District officials refused to bend the knee and back down from the state.
Lawsuit Filed
On August 28, Bonta issued a statement notifying California residents that he filed a lawsuit to stop the Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education’s policy. The attorney general accused the district of violating state laws and its Constitution. He claimed it is already threatening “LGBTQ+ students with further mental, emotional, psychological and potential physical harm.”
The statement listed the laws violated by the policy.
- California’s Constitution guarantees a right to informational and autonomy privacy. By revealing the student’s gender to anyone against their wishes, the district is violating that right.
- The policy allegedly violates the state’s Equal Protection Clause by discriminating against and singling out students who ask staff to use different pronouns or names than the ones they were born with.
- The AG also contends that it violates California’s Education and Government Code, which protects students from discrimination based on gender expression or identity.
Bonta stated that for many trans students, school is “their only safe haven […] where they can find validation, safety, [and] privacy.” He said the state has to “protect that.”
Sonja Shaw, the president of the school district, spoke to a reporter from The Associated Press, saying the lawsuit wasn’t surprising and accusing the state of trying to “shut parents out of their children’s lives.” Shaw said officials aren’t going to back down and will continue to “protect [their] children,” arguing “parents have a constitutional right” to have a say in how their children are brought up.
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