California.- A year after California school boards became unlikely battlegrounds in the culture war, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed the nation’s first law banning policies that require educators to inform parents if their children ask to use a different name or pronouns.
The new law was applauded by LGBTQ organizations who said it would protect the privacy and safety of transgender students, especially those who might fear their parents would not support their identity. But conservatives vowed to challenge the law in court, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk calling it a “straw that breaks the camel’s back” in a post on X, vowing to move X and Space X headquarters to Texas as a result of the law being signed into law.
Over the past year, more than a dozen California school boards — mostly led by conservatives who were elected in the wake of disruptions caused by the pandemic — enacted policies that would have required school employees to notify parents if students asked to use a name or pronouns other than the ones on their school records.
Similar policies have been enacted in conservative states, such as Tennessee and North Carolina, as part of a broader “parents’ rights” movement backed by national conservative organizations. But liberal leaders in California viewed the school board’s policies as an unwelcome incursion that would forcibly expel transgender and nonbinary students.
Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta battled conservative school districts in court before the state’s overwhelmingly Democratic legislature sent its bill to the governor last month.
The new law prohibits local school boards from requiring educators to inform parents if their child asks to use a different name or pronouns. Parents will retain the right to access their child’s school records, and minors will still be required to obtain permission from their parents or guardians before legally changing their name or gender.
“This law helps keep children safe while protecting the critical role of parents,” a spokesman for Gov. Brandon Richards said in a statement. “It protects the child-parent relationship by preventing politicians and school personnel from inappropriately intervening in family matters and attempting to control if, when and how families have deeply personal conversations.”
In fast-growing suburbs that were once more rural Republican strongholds, such as Chino and Temecula in Southern California, outspoken conservatives have vowed to rebuild trust between parents and educators by allowing parents to control much of their children’s education.
Sonja Shaw, who was elected in 2022 to lead the Chino Valley Unified School District, was an early adopter of what she has called a parental notification policy, which the state quickly sued to block in a case that is ongoing.
On Tuesday, she condemned the new law and accused Mr. Newsom of being part of a “political cartel” that seeks to alienate parents from their children’s education. She and her allies vowed to fight the new law in court.
“It is morally corrupt and was enacted to prevent parents from exercising their rights,” he said. “This battle is far from over, and we will not rest until justice is served and parents’ rights are fully restored.”
Many opponents of parental notification policies, including Mr. Bonta, described them as “forced out” approaches that would harm transgender students whose parents reject their identities.
Some parents have organized to counter the so-called parents’ rights movement and pressure school boards to refocus on attracting high-quality teachers and funding after-school programs.
Kristi Hirst, a Chino Valley mother who helped start the nonprofit Our Schools USA, said she has been encouraged in recent months by the ouster of several conservative school board members, most notably the president of the Temecula Valley Unified School District, who at one point described gay rights icon Harvey Milk as a “pedophile.”
He said Tuesday that Mr. Newsom’s decision to sign the new legislation was “a strong show of support.” (It was not a certainty that Mr. Newsom would sign the bill, given that he has rejected other bills supported by progressives in recent years.)
“This is an excellent bill that will keep students safer in the state of California,” Ms. Hirst said of the new law.
He added that the law would ideally serve as a safeguard if Republicans were to take control of the federal government and push conservative education priorities.
But legal experts say court battles over parental notification policies in particular are far from over.
The law firm representing the Chino Valley Unified School District has argued that parents have a constitutional right to control their children’s upbringing, including their education. But legal scholars have said children also have a constitutional right to privacy.
California conservatives have expressed hope that the Chino Valley case or a similar one will end up before the Supreme Court.
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