A California school district has sued Gov. Gavin Newsom over a new law that prohibits schools from adopting parental notification policies.
Newsom signed the first-in-the-nation legislation Monday which makes California the first state to stop school districts from notifying parents if their child starts using different pronouns or identifies as a different gender than what’s on their school record.
Several California school boards have discussed or voted on policies that would require schools to disclose students’ gender identity to their parents or guardians, regardless of the student’s consent.
Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Chino Valley Unified School District in San Bernardino County last year over its parental notification policy. And in April, the California Department of Education filed a lawsuit against Rocklin Unified School District in Placer County over a similar policy.
Newsom’s decision to sign the bill received vocal support from many, including State Superintendent of Instruction Tony Thurmond, the LGBTQ+ advocacy nonprofit The Trevor Project, the California School Employees Association and the California Teachers Association.
But others were outraged by the decision, including billionaire Elon Musk, who said it was “the final straw” and that he would move the headquarters of SpaceX and the social media platform X to Texas.
“The governor of California just signed a bill causing massive destruction of parental rights and putting children at risk for permanent damage,” Musk posted on X.
Musk has a transgender daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, who filed to cut ties with him in 2022 in her petition for a name change and new birth certificate.
According to a Wall Street Journal excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s biography on the billionaire, Musk partly blamed his daughter’s decision on Crossroads, the progressive school she attended in Los Angeles.
The Liberty Justice Center, which has represented Chino Valley Unified School District and Rocklin Unified School District in their legal battles, filed the lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of Chino Valley Unified and several California parents.
The lawsuit asks the Court to stop California from implementing AB 1955 — which would go into effect in January — over claims it violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
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“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,” said Emily Rae, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. “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, at no cost to taxpayers.”
In a statement Tuesday, the director of communications for the Governor’s Office, Izzy Gardon, called the lawsuit “deeply unserious,” and said it was seemingly designed “to stoke the dumpster fire formerly known as Twitter rather than surface legitimate legal claims.”
“AB 1955 preserves the child-parent relationship, California law ensures minors can’t legally change their name or gender without parental consent, and parents continue to have guaranteed and full access to their student’s educational records consistent with federal law,” Gardon said. “We’re confident the state will swiftly prevail in this case.”
The governor’s office noted that AB 1955 does not allow a student’s name or gender identity to be changed on an official school record without their parent or guardian’s consent or allow teachers and districts to hide information from parents.
The law also doesn’t limit students’ ability to discuss their gender identity with their own families, the governor’s office noted. But the governor’s office indicated it strengthens existing California protections against “forced outings” of students in schools and ensures that teachers and staff do not interfere with the parent-child relationship by forcing families to have conversations about identity.
