California’s Attorney General is warning school districts across the state that policies requiring employees to report transgender students to their parents violate the state constitution.
Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a legal warning Thursday saying policies adopted by several Golden State school districts are unconstitutional and “harmful” to the privacy, safety and well-being of transgender and gender nonconforming students.
“We know what the data tells us – that 15% of transgender, gender non-conforming young people are kicked out of their homes,” Attorney General Rob Bonta told KCAL last week after the warning was issued Thursday.
“Another 10% were physically harmed by their immediate family members,” he added.
Bonta’s warning comes amid an ongoing battle between the attorney general and the Chino Valley School District, which issued the policy in July after a 4-1 vote from the school board.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta has argued that the mandate puts the lives of trans students in danger. AP
The policy mandates that staff must notify parents if their children request to go by a different name or pronoun; whether they ask to use the bathroom or participate in activities that do not align with their birth gender.
Chino Valley District requires students to report even if they do not authorize staff to disclose the information.
Bonta has insisted the policy discriminates against trans students and puts them in harm’s way.
Chino Valley School Board President Sonja Shaw, a vocal supporter of the bill, has accused the attorney general of being “obsessed with power.”
Chino Valley School Board President Sonja Shaw has characterized the mandate as a stand for parents’ rights. AP
“He’s shown that he wants to be a parent to our children and he’s not doing his real job, which is keeping California safe,” Shaw told KCAL. “What is he doing to keep them safe on campus by stopping parents? It makes absolutely no sense.”
In its warning last week, Bonta’s office said the exit policy “targets transgender and gender nonconforming students,” before highlighting three separate ways it violates the California Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, according to the Sacramento Bee.
“Because gender identity is an aspect of gender, transgender or gender nonconforming individuals constitute a protected class under California’s equal protection clause,” the notification reads.
The mandate resulted in a fiery board of education meeting in July and anger on both sides of the debate ever since. AP
Other violations include a ban on gender discrimination, showing how “forced exit policies target one group, and ‘that group only’ for discriminatory treatment,” along with violations of students’ privacy rights.
“In short, by singling out transgender and gender nonconforming students for disparate treatment that puts them at risk of harm, the forced disclosure policy violates their constitutional rights to equal protection and privacy, as well as their statutory protections from discrimination under the law California,” the warning read.
Bonto’s office previously sued the school district to block the policy in August, which it called “abhorrent,” citing a fiery July 20 Board of Education hearing in which trans students were described as “heartbreaking” and having a “mental illness.”
Shaw has doubled down on the policy, describing it as a fight for parents’ rights against invasive liberal politicians who want to take them away.
“The political cartels keep showing their cards and I think we just have to stand by our constitutional rights and we have to make sure we protect our children together,” he said on Thursday.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
