OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Friday he’ll investigate the Chino Valley Unified School District's decision to notify parents if their child asks teachers or other school staff to use a name or pronoun that's different than the one given at birth.
The decision made last month by the school district in San Bernardino County could violate the state’s anti-discrimination law and violate a student’s right to privacy, Bonta said in a July 20 letter to the district’s superintendent and board.
The board voted that day on a new policy that stated parents and guardians will be notified if their child is involved in violence, shows suicidal ideation or asks that people identify them by something other than their gender assigned at birth, a district press release stated.
Bonta said in a statement Friday the new policy also requires disclosure even if it’s against the student’s wishes or could expose them to parental abuse, or heighten their risk of harming themselves or suicide. Parents would also be told if their student uses facilities or attends programs that don’t align with their birth gender.
“Students should never fear going to school for simply being who they are,” Bonta said. “Chino Valley Unified’s forced outing policy threatens the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ students vulnerable to harassment and potential abuse from peers and family members unaccepting of their gender identity. Today’s announcement stresses our commitment to challenging school policies that target and seek to discriminate against California’s most vulnerable communities. California will not stand for violations of our students’ civil rights.”
The July 20 vote by the school board followed a contentious meeting, with public comment peppered by clapping, jeering and shouting. School officials said they had 83 requests for public comment.
One of them was state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, who claimed afterward he was forcibly removed from the meeting. District officials deny this, saying Thurmond left with his team and was then given access to recorded video in a classroom.
“It is another intimidation factor and only shows their focus is to break up home and families,” said Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District board, in an email. “They are making dangerous assumptions when they say parents are dangerous to their children. They are overstepping their boundaries. Parents don’t send their kids to school to develop secret relationships with adults.
Shaw called Bonta's investigation "a ploy to try to scare all the other boards across California from adopting the policy," adding, "They did us a favor and just revealed more of their agenda and exposed their intentions. I won’t back down and will stand in the gap to protect our kids from big government bullies.”
In his letter, Bonta warned the school board against adopting the policy, saying many community members — including past and current LGBTQ+ students — feared it would endanger nonconforming and transgender students.
According to Bonta, disclosing a student’s gender identity without their permission could violate the state’s anti-discrimination law. Courts have determined gender identity to be a protected privacy right, and students don’t waive their reasonable expectation of privacy because they express their gender identity in the classroom.
“The California Department of Education further instructs ‘schools are required to respect the limitations that a student places on the disclosure of their transgender status, including not sharing that information with the student’s parents,’ subject to ‘rare exceptions,’” Bonta said.
This “outing” of a student likely would lead to physical, mental and emotional harm, as well as harassment.
According to Bonta, the education department recommends schools talk with transgender students and determine who, if anyone, should be told of a student’s transgender status. Telling a student’s parents should occur only on rare occasions when officials believe there’s a need to know. In those cases, the student should have notice their parents will be told.
Chino Valley Unified’s decision “contradicts this guidance in almost every respect,” Bonta said.
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