California School District Files Lawsuit Over New LGBTQ+ Protections Law
The Chino Valley Unified School District has filed a lawsuit against the state of California over a new law that would make it illegal for schools to notify the parents of a child who identifies as a gender, name, or pronoun that is different from what is listed on their official school record.
The controversial law, titled Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act, was passed as Assembly Bill 1955 (AB1955) and signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on June 15. In it, AB 1955 explains that school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, the state special schools, and others are prohibited from disclosing “any information related to a pupil’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to any other person without the pupil’s consent.”
The bill maintains that students who identify as LGBTQ+ have a right to freely express themselves at school and have a continuous right to privacy. The bill explains that “policies that forcibly “out” pupils without their consent remove opportunities for LGBTQ+ young people and their families to build trust and have these conversations when they are ready.”
Opponents of the bill say that parents should have the right to know about matters concerning their children, especially regarding topics related to gender identity.
Soon after being introduced, a lawsuit was filed challenging the new bill. The lawsuit was filed by the Liberty Justice Center, a self-described non-partisan, non-profit public interest litigation firm, on behalf of the Chino Valley Unified School District and several parents of students in the school district. In the lawsuit, the plaintiffs say that the law violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments because it takes away a parent’s constitutional right “to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children.”
The lawsuit also alleges the new law violates the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). This law governs many aspects of communication between a school system and the parents of a child. This new law would violate FERPA, according to the complaint, because information related to a child’s “educational records” would be kept from parents.
In announcing the lawsuit, the Liberty Justice Center shared, “School officials do not have the right to keep secrets from parents, but parents do have a constitutional right to know what their minor children are doing at school. Parents are the legal guardians of their children, not Governor Newsom, Attorney General Bonta, or Superintendent Thurmond. We will continue to defend parents’ rights and children’s well-being by challenging invasive laws like AB 1955 in court.”
