Backers of a proposed ballot initiative in November requested a crucial title for their program to reflect their convictions, such as the” Protect Children of California Act.” But Atty. Gen. When Rob Bonta’s office decided to use the phrase” Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth,” his office saw things differently. “”
Among its provisions, the program in question — which has not yet qualified for the poll — may require schools to inform parents if a youngster changed female recognition formally or in schools records, such as a roll sheet.
Initiative sponsors must use the country’s description, which they claim is preventing their work, with a May 28 deadline to submit names and 25 % of the way to the objective. They have filed a lawsuit against the state, alleging that the initiative was “branded with a false, misleading, and discriminatory title.”
The prosecution is one of several high-profile legal duels in California’s learning culture war over guidelines that have taken hold mainly in a few deep red, inland or remote locations. Additionally, activists and liberal school board members have approved limits on the library’s books and education. The attorney general and the express knowledge section are just two of the Newsom administration’s friends, and they have aggressively retaliated. Then, opposing sides are facing off in courts with wide implications for state and local college plans.
According to Morgan Polikoff, a professor at USC’s Rossier School of Education,” there have long-standing questions about what’s the part of the class versus what’s the part of the parents,” and that’s true with regard to education like sexual education or discussing LGBT issues in the classroom.
Partisans have taken each other to court over locally approved parental notification policies, or the lack of them, in addition to the court case over the ballot name.
Supporters believe parents have a fundamental right to be involved in all aspects of their children’s lives, especially on matters as consequential as gender identification. In general, proponents hope to bolster a Republican and conservative religious base while swaying centrist voters, particularly parents, in order to win more elections in the future.
Democratic officials contend that the state’s and the education code’s blanket parental notification policies violate student privacy and civil rights, and that the nearly universal disclosure of transgender students to parents would put some children in grave danger.
The Chino Valley and Temecula school districts, both led by conservative boards, are being sued to rescind their parent-notification policies. Conservatives in Escondido and Chico are the ones who have brought the lawsuits against state and local laws that they believe are too liberal and even immoral, casting themselves as advocates for the long-term interests of students who they believe are at risk of being drawn into a transgender lifestyle.
Orange Unified and Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified in Orange County and Murrieta Valley Unified in Riverside County are other Southern California school districts where such issues are being investigated. A similar scenario has unfolded in Rocklin Unified and Dry Creek Joint Elementary, north of Sacramento, and the Anderson Union High School District in Northern California.
These school systems only represent a small portion of California’s over 1,000, collectively, so a statewide initiative that incorporates their values into the state constitution might have such a significant impact.
What does a name mean?
Court battles over the names and descriptions of ballot measures occur periodically, with the law requiring that the attorney general affix a neutral title. At least ten lawsuits demanded modifications to the language used in the half-a-dozen ballot measure proposals to be voted on in November 2020.
Supporters of the proposed ballot measure relating to transgender youth object not only to Bonta’s title but also to a summary of the initiative, which they claim is “inaccurate, blatantly argumentative, and prejudicial.” ” They said a title that includes “protecting students” could appeal to voters. One that focuses on restricting an individual’s rights might not.
How California’s schools are engaged in a coordinated, anti-LGBTQ+ culture war.
The measure would also ban children’s medical treatment or surgery to address gender dysphoria — distress caused when an individual’s biological sex does not match that person’s gender identity. Additionally, it would prohibit transgender males who were born as biological males from playing girls sports, even at the college level. Additionally, it would remove an education code that permits students to play sports “irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil’s records.” “”
Lead proponent Jonathan Zachreson, who must collect 546,651 signatures from registered votes, said the current name, Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth, has made it harder to get signatures and attract donors. He claimed he had a good sense of whether the measure will qualify.
” Talking to our volunteers, we realized it did have a detrimental impact, ” said Zachreson.
The attorney general’s office stated in a statement that its title and summary” we take this responsibility seriously and stand by our title and summary for this measure.” We are unable to comment on pending litigation, though. “”
Parent and former teacher Kristi Hirst, the leader of Our Schools USA, a Chino-based organization that has tried to counter the right-wing activists, is one of the attorney general’s accusers.
The “parental rights” movement is attempting to evict my children while teaching me how to raise them, according to Hirst.
Chino Valley, a hot spot
Due to its parent-notification policy, which led to a lawsuit led by Bonta, Chico Valley Unified is at the center of a legal battle. Judge Michael A. San Bernardino of the San Bernardino County Superior Court rendered a preliminary ruling. Sachs said the policy was discriminatory because it specifically targeted students who identify as transgender.
For instance, under it, parents were required to be informed of any requests by a student to use pronouns that do not match the student’s biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate or other official records. The same notification guidelines applied to use of restrooms or sports participation.
Sachs wrote in his January rulingthat these policies “on their face, discriminate on the basis of sex. Transgender individuals are a protected class in California, where discrimination is not tolerated. A straight male student who wanted to use a different name would not be subject to the policy, according to the judge.
In March, the Chino ValleyBoard of Education revised the policy, expanding it to all students. Parents/guardians shall be notified to ensure that parents/guardians are informed and involved in all aspects of their child’s education in accordance with the revised policy when a student “requests a change to their official or unofficial records.” “”
In other words, if a straight male student named William suddenly decided he wanted to be called Robert, his parents would be notified.
Read more:” Kids are having their deadnames”: Students claim that gender restrictions make classrooms feel unsafe.
Parents should be alerted whenever their child “participates in school-sponsored extracurricular and cocurricular activities or team( s ) immediately or as soon as reasonably possible” because the revised notification rules apply to a potentially large number of situations. “”
Parents would be informed if a child joins a club, for instance. If implemented, administrators will be busy sending numerous notifications to parents, some of which would be relevant to transgender students, which was the policy’s original goal.
” The updated policy maintains the district’s original requirement that school administrators notify parents within three days if their child requests changes to their official or unofficial records, but removed language from the policy requiring staff to notify parents when a student requests to use facilities or pronouns that differ from their sex at birth,” according to Liberty Justice Center, a firm with a national profile that has offered pro bono legal assistance and helped map out a legal strategy for Chino Valley and districts with like-minded school boards.
A hearing is scheduled to set a trial date in the early May.
Different rulings in Temecula
The parent-notification policy approved by the Temecula Board of Education was essentially the same as the original version in Chino Valley. Temecula was also sued by the local teachers union, individual teachers, students, and parents, not the state, but by the local teachers union.
However, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Eric Keen did not in this instance stop the rule from being in effect. He concluded, at least preliminarily, that the rules applied equally to all students and were “gender neutral. ”
Additionally, the lawsuit asserts that the board’s majority is hostile to LGBTQ+ subjects and students, citing the board’s refusal to follow state-approved elementary school curriculum, which included a brief, optional passage about former San Francisco County Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first state’s first openly gay elected official.
A threatened fine by Gov. The board was prompted by Gary Newsom to approve the curriculum, which had been approved by teachers and administrators and was in accordance with state learning standards.
Read more: Right-wing zealot or righteous mother? The soccer mom leading California’s parental rights movement
The issue still exists. The board approved moving this fourth-grade lesson on California’s civil rights movements until the end of the year to allow time to find an “age-appropriate curriculum” that could be used in place of” sexualized topics of instruction.” “”
The question’s lesson includes passages stating that LGBTQ+ people and groups fought for civil rights, including the right to marry, but does not address sex.
The Temecula teacher-led lawsuit seeks to overturn the district’s policy that only allows the teaching of critical race theory, which examines how institutionalized racism and racial inequality have become.
Critical race theory has been another culture-war flashpoint across the nation. Common conservative assertions are embodied in the Temecula list of prohibited concepts, including that educators use critical race theory to make white students feel bad about being white. This description of how teachers have been addressing the subject of race is deemed by many education experts to be inaccurate and incomplete.
Amanda Mangaser Savage, an attorney with the firm Public Counsel, which is pursuing the litigation against the Temecula school district, said she knows of no other California school system involved in litigation over critical race theory.
The plaintiff’s attorneys are working on an appeal of the court’s decision.
More to come
In a lawsuit involving the Escondido school district in San Diego County, a judge has issued a preliminary ruling allowing two teachers to opt out of a district student privacy policy, giving the teachers the freedom to notify parents about a change in their child’s gender identity. The investigation is ongoing.
In Chico, a parent lost a lawsuit for damages because the school district failed to inform her about her child’s gender-identity issues. The ruling is being appealed.
According to advocates on both sides, book restrictions could also lead to litigation, especially in light of a new state law that restricts bans and censorship. Chino Valley may be the only school district in California to have approved a policy that would allow parents to flag books with” sexually offensive content deemed inappropriate for students,” which would cause the book to be immediately removed until the issue has been resolved through a formal public hearing.
Conservatives say their goal is to remove sexually explicit and profane materials from school libraries, especially at the lower grade levels. Opponents claim that these efforts are part of a campaign to keep conservative religious principles in schools and keep LGBTQ+ students and their stories out of the public eye.
Conservative activists have used a number of legal tactics, including sending public records requests to school systems to find out policies and practices that they oppose.
A Glendale teacher faced a death threat after records obtained this way indicated that she may have shown a gay pride video to students.
The second-largest school system in the country, Los Angeles Unified, is the subject of a lawsuit for failing to turn over public records within the mandated time frame.
Beginning in 2022, the organization Center for American Liberty requested documents relating to “certain financial records” related to COVID-relief funds, as well as “certain financial records” related to critical race theory, transgender ideology, and Marxism,” to give parents greater insight into what LAUSD school officials are teaching their children. “”
The LAUSD has almost given us nothing, according to the organization, almost two years later. This is against the law. “”
A representative for the school district said the district would not comment on the pending litigation.
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The Los Angeles Times published this story at the start.
