Topline:
The Orange Unified School District passed a policy where the principal will notify parents if their child’s gender is different from the one assigned at birth, despite Attorney General Rob Bonta emailing the school board during the meeting threatening to “take action as appropriate to vigorously protect students civil rights.”
The policy broken down: School staff now have to notify the school counselor or psychologist if a child younger than 12 requests to use a different name, different pronouns, different restrooms or switches to a sex-segregated school program and activity different from their assigned sex at birth.
The school counselor or the psychologist will then inform the principal, who will notify the child’s parents within five days.
Children over the age of 12 can refuse to have their parents notified. If school staff decides that notifying parents of a child over the age of 12 would pose a danger to the child, parents will not be notified.
Background: The OUSD board made the decision after hours of contentious public comment where some parents decried that the state “had declared war on parents.” LGBTQIA+ activists also spoke highlighting the need to protect trans kids from forced outings.
Earlier this week, a Supreme Court judge ruled that the Chino Valley Unified School District temporarily cannot enforce a similar policy. Bonta started the lawsuit in August stating that the policy violated California’s constitution.
And just yesterday, the California Legislature approved a bill that would fine school boards that banned books with LGBTQ+ and racial themes.
