OPINION: California law requires teachers, staff, and vendors to lie to parents about children’s gender

OPINION — California has become the first state in the nation to enact a gender secrecy law that will force teachers and staff to lie to parents and to hide from them critical information they have a right to know about their children.

The new law (AB 1955) comes after more than a dozen school boards and at least one school district in the state have enacted policies to tell parents if students showed signs of gender confusion, such as asking to use names or pronouns inconsistent with their biological sex in school records.

The law was signed last week, and the next day Chino Valley Unified School District (USD) filed a lawsuit challenging the law’s constitutionality of keeping child-related secrets from parents. The law is slated to take effect Jan. 1, 2025.

Governor Gavin Newsom quietly signed AB 1955 into law which would overturn any existing parental notification policies across the state. The law would effectively keep parents in the dark about any gender  identity issues of their children at school.

Despite the bill’s controversial run through the state legislature, which included vocal opposition from parents, heated floor debates, and even the physical restraining of a legislator from confronting another legislator who opposed the bill, the bill passed 29-8 in the state Senate and 61-16 in the House Assembly.

The law reads, “An employee or a contractor of a school district, county office of education, charter school, or state special school for the blind or the deaf 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.

In other words, California’s new law envelops school employees into a cloak of secrecy about a student’s gender expression. The law also states that “outing” students about any change in how they perceive their gender without their consent violates their privacy rights and that students must be able to express themselves freely without fear that teachers might tell their parents. Under this rationale, the law also prohibits school districts from punishing employees for withholding information from parents.

While proponents of the bill claim it will prevent the “forced outing” of students, opponents argue the bill is rooted in disinformation, creates conditions for teachers to openly lie to parents, and is a “direct assault” on parents’ rights.

The new law may change the legal landscape in California affecting ongoing litigation regarding parental notification policies.

Last October, California Attorney General Rob Bonta successfully sued Chino Valley USD, which was one of the few California districts that had a policy to actually keep parents informed about their children. Bonta won a preliminary injunction blocking the district’s parental notification policy.

Yet, last September, a federal judge ruled against the gender secrecy policy of a different California school district ruling that it deprives parents of their longstanding 14th Amendment right to make health care decisions for their children.

In the case, Judge Roger Benitez temporarily blocked Escondido Union School District from punishing two teachers who refused to hide information or lie to parents about student gender confusion. This lawsuit was recently amended with the goal of also getting a permanent injunction against gender secrecy policies, including AB 1955.

While it is uncertain when and how the outcomes of these cases will be determined, attorneys for both the Escondido teachers and Chino Valley USD are pursuing permanent rulings to strike down the new law and protect the constitutional rights of parents.

In contrast to California, at least eight states have laws that protect parental rights and require schools to notify parents if their child displays any gender confusion, such as Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In addition, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Montana, and Utah have laws that promote parental notification policies, but do not require them.

According to Parents Defending Education, a grassroots organization promoting non-political education in the public classroom, at least 1,097 U.S. school districts have adopted gender secrecy policies to keep parents blind to any changes in their child’s gender-related behavior.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Parents have the right to direct the upbringing of their children. Children do not have the capacity to understand the long-term ramifications of gender ideology, and parents must be involved to direct the appropriate care for them. Counseling is the only rational and medically sound option for gender confusion. This California law will further break parents’ trust in the public education system, and it is a betrayal to every parent and teacher in the state. The law appears unconstitutional on its face and needs to be struck down.”

For more information about state laws protecting against gender ideology, visit Liberty Counsel’s website.