California to launch civil rights investigation over transgender policy in Chino school district

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is opening a civil rights investigation into the Chino Valley Unified School District after it adopted a controversial policy that requires the school to notify parents if their child is transgender.

The “Parental Notification Policy” requires teachers and school staff to inform parents if a student requests to use different pronouns or a different name than that on official records, or if the student uses bathrooms or joins programs that do not align with their sex assigned at birth. It also requires parents to be notified if their child is involved in violence or expresses suicidal thoughts.

The school board voted 4-1 on July 20 to enact the policy. That same day, Bonta sent a letter to the superintendent and board expressing “serious concern” about the legality of the new rules, given that they could violate California’s antidiscrimination and privacy laws.

School board president Sonja Shaw defended the measure Friday.

“This (investigation) is a ploy to try to scare all the other boards across California from adopting the policy,” Shaw said in an email to The Sacramento Bee. “They are making dangerous assumptions when they say parents are dangerous to their children. They are overstepping their boundaries.”

Chino Valley Superintendent Norm Enfield and the school district were notified of the investigation moments before the public announcement. Andi Johnston, a spokeswoman for the district, said they are still reviewing the correspondence.

The California Department of Education says “disclosing that a student is transgender without the student’s permission may violate California’s antidiscrimination law by increasing the student’s vulnerability to harassment and may violate the student’s right to privacy.” It advises that schools consult with students about who can or should be informed of the student’s gender identity.

In 2005, a federal court ruled in C.N. v. Wolf that a California school district violated a student’s right to privacy by disclosing her sexual orientation to her parents. Federal courts have also recognized gender identity as protected under the Constitution’s fourth amendment right to privacy.

Last month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Chico Unified School District’s policy of protecting the gender identities of students from their parents.

U.S. District Court Judge John Mendez said that the privacy interests of the school district and the student overrode parental rights. In doing so, Mendez also kept intact guidance by California school officials.

State Superintendent Tony Thurmond, who attended the July 20 school board meeting in Chino to oppose the policy before the board’s vote — and was led out by security guards to shouts of “kick him out.”

Thurmond and LGBT advocates oppose policies like the one the school board passed because they can endanger transgender students whose families may not accept them.

“The policy that you consider tonight not only may fall outside the laws that respect privacy and safety of students, but may put our students at risk because they may not be in homes where they can be safe,” Thurmond said.

Those in favor of the policy argued that parents should know about their childrens’ identities at school.

“Parents have a fundamental right to direct the care, the custody and control of their children, and that right does not get taken away unless the parent is ruled unfit,” said board president Shaw.

Chino Valley has been involved in culture war legal disputes before. In 2018, a federal court ruled that the board violated the Constitution for its practice of starting every school board meeting with religious prayer.