Parents are outraged that a California school board has decided to put the transgender rights of students over the rights of their parents.
Fox News reports that the Chico Unified School Board in Chico, California voted to uphold its so-called parental secrecy policy, which will remain in place after the vote. This policy allows teachers in the school to maintain the secrecy of decisions that a student might make about gender identity while in school. In other words, the teachers are NOT required to inform parents if their child has expressed interest in changing their sex or even if they say that they are having mental turmoil related to their gender identity.
The vote was taken after the Center for American Liberty took up a lawsuit by Aurora Regino, the mother of an 11-year-old in the school district who accused a guidance counselor at the school of helping her child transition from female to male without the familys knowledge or consent.
Regino spoke before the school boards vote on Wednesday and said: Tell my story so that parents and the public know what is going on in our schools.
She also told the school board: The day my daughter shared with her guidance counselor that she felt like a boy, the counselor immediately affirmed this new identity. She continued, From then on, the counselor continued to have one-on-one meetings with my daughter without my knowledge. During one of those one-on-one meetings, my daughter told the counselor that she wanted to tell me about her new identity. The counselor ignored her request and did nothing to support her in letting me know what was going on at school.
California laws already provide several protections for students regarding their gender identity. The California Department of Education offers the following explanation:
compliance officer may discuss with the student any need to disclose the students transgender or gender-nonconformity status or gender identity or gender expression to the students parents/guardians.
The Department also said, The district shall offer support services, such as counseling, to students who wish to inform their parents/guardians of their status and desire assistance in doing so.
Many community members spoke in favor of the policy, saying its necessary to keep this policy in place to allow transgender students the opportunity to express their true gender identity. They claim that the students need this to remain safe. However, many parents feel its completely irresponsible for the school system to cut parents out of a process like this.
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