The Chino Valley Unified school board has passed a new version of a controversial notification policy that requires staff to tell parents about changes with their child, potentially setting up another legal battle with California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
It’s a similar, slimmed down version of a previous policy, passed last July, that required parent notification when students asked to be treated as a different gender or go by a different name. That policy was later blocked in court and sparked a civil rights lawsuit from the state.
The new version doesn’t mention gender, biological sex, or bathrooms, but it still requires school district staff to tell parents within three days if their child wants to change “any information contained in the student’s official or unofficial records.”
It passed Thursday with a vote of 4 to 1, with school board member Donald Bridge voting against it.
Critics say the new version is an attempt at disguising a “forced outing policy.”
Kristi Hirst, a Chino parent and co-founder of Our Schools USA, a nonprofit that aims to protect public education for all students, spoke during the meeting and criticized school board president Sonja Shaw, who has championed the parental notification policies.
“It doesn't matter [that] the update doesn't include the word gender or bathroom,” Hirst said. “This policy was passed to discriminate, and it still does, because that's what it was intended and designed to do.”
Chris Riddell, who identified himself as a parent who comes from three generations of public school teachers, said the policy will insert the school system into the personal lives of students and families.
“It may come as a surprise to some of the parents in this room, but parents don't own their children,” he said, prompting laughs and jeers from school board meeting attendees. “Children are their own people, and they deserve the same respect as all human beings.”
He added that schools are public places, which means they belong to every person in a community, not just those the school board agrees with. He said he fears the policy will lead to more violence and disruption.
Proponents of the policy say parents have a right to know what’s going on with their children.
Oscar Avila, who identified himself at the meeting as a Chino parent, said the new policy helps protect parental rights and that parents should be notified of any significant changes with their children.
“There's no reason why anybody, outside of the family unit, could come into my home and tell me that you have no right over your child,” Avila said. “Nobody cares about our family more than parents.”
He said he supports the policy because he wants full information, and an open dialogue, about what’s going on with his kids.
Eva Harrison, who also spoke during the meeting, and said she runs a parental informational page, said the new policy is important and necessary because parents know and love their kids best.
“Safe teachers don't lie to parents, safe teachers don't keep secrets from parents,” she said. “Thank you for protecting our children from unsafe teachers by passing a parental notification policy.”
She encouraged parents who are against the policy to opt-out of notifications for their children, and let others choose what's best for their family.
Opponents have expressed concerns that the new policy will lead to yet another lawsuit, and Bonta, California’s attorney general, has warned he’s watching.
The AG’s office sent out a legal alert on Jan. 11 to school districts across the state that said “forced disclosure policies” violate California’s equal protection clause by discriminating based on gender identity, as well as students’ constitutional right to privacy.
“The Attorney General has a substantial interest in protecting the legal rights, physical safety, and mental health of children in California schools, and in protecting them from trauma, harassment, bullying, and exposure to violence and threats of violence,” the office said in a statement, which references the Chino Valley Unified School District.
