Parental rights triumphed over the transgender agenda in the shadow of California’s capital overnight, as the state’s fifth school district adopted a policy requiring teachers to notify parents if their children begin to identify as a member of another sex.
Parents burst into cheers as the Rocklin Unified School District (RUSD) board of trustees adopted the policy by a 4-1 vote Thursday morning around 12:40 a.m. local time. The regulation stipulates that schools must contact parents within three school days if their child requests to use a name, pronouns, or sex-segregated facilities “that do not align with the child’s biological sex.” Trustees also clarified that a student’s gender identity remains confidential to everyone “except the student and their parent(s).”
“We trust our parents to know what is best for their children,” said Rocklin school trustees shortly after the vote. “We believe that the best way to address these challenges is together, with open communication and clear expectations. The board’s action to strengthen parental notification and communication reinforces our commitment to include parents in school activities and decisions related to their child.”
The new measure is aimed at “strengthening the relationship between our staff, students, and family,” they stated.
The vote came after hundreds of people crowded into a grueling, six-and-a-half-hour meeting that included more than four hours of public comments that ranged from heartrending to hot-headed.
“This policy is violent,” asserted a LGBTQ activist wearing a rainbow cape, a cloth COVID mask, and hoisting a handheld transgender flag. “You are waging war, and we will not take it quietly. … We’ll shame you in public! … Take our kids’ futures, and we’ll take your livelihood!”
“We don’t take threats up here,” replied RUSD Board President Julie Hupp, who favored the policy. “Threatening the board members is not how we work up here.”
“It’s not a threat. It’s a promise!” said the speaker, who identified as Jay Smith, to the cheers of rainbow-flag waving audience members.
More than one speaker wore an LGBTQ cape in the manner of a superhero. Teachers in the school district reportedly passed out rainbow ribbons to oppose notifying parents.
Mothers and fathers asked those teachers not to lock them out of knowing the most fundamental facts of their children’s lives. “Please support parental rights. Basic safeguarding of children means not keeping secrets from parents,” pleaded concerned parent Beth Bourne. One of the district’s concerned parents, California Assemblyman Joe Patterson (R-5), thanked the trustees for their service, empathizing with those who received “really hateful comments.”
“What this whole issue is about is: Who gets to raise our kids? Who gets to raise the next generation of Californians? Is it the government, or is it their parents?” declared conservative Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-23), who has championed a similar policy at the state level (A.B. 1314).
“The central question is: What authority does a school have to withhold information from parents?” asked Essayli. He noted that courts have ruled “there is no right to privacy between children and their parents.”
Liberals promised swift political retaliation against RUSD and its four pro-parent trustees. “Hit me up if you want to run for school board next year,” said Jonathan Cook, the executive director of the Sacramento Housing Alliance. (RUSD trustee Michelle Sutherland cast the lone dissenting vote on Wednesday night. Julie Hupp, Tiffany Saathoff, Rachelle Price, and Dereck Counter voted in favor.) One political communications specialist urged LGBT activists to nullify or counter messages that parental notification policies validate parents’ love for their children.
But messages of support also poured in from those unable to attend. “Parents have every right to know what’s happening with their kids. State politicians need to stay in their lane and stop meddling in parents’ efforts to raise their children,” said former State Senator Melissa Melendez (R-67).
Many of those who opposed the policy reportedly came from outside the district, while some who supported it cited their faith. Hupp took a moment during the hearings to address a “controversy” over a social media post in which she invited “Christ-centered, family-focused individuals” to attend the proceedings, noting that she posted a second message inviting all families to take part.
The lopsided passage constitutes an act of defiance on the part of Rocklin, which is located in Placer County — a mere 22 miles outside Sacramento, where the administration of Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has made a full-court press against parental notification policies.
California State Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) won a temporary restraining order Wednesday morning against the first district to approve a parental rights policy, Chino Valley Unified School District in San Bernardino County. CVUSD president Sonja Shaw, who has endured disturbing and specific death threats for her stand in favor of parental rights, objected that the policy “simply says that parents have a right to know what is going on at school and not be the last person informed.”
Judge Thomas Garza’s order, which applies only to Chino Valley, represents “a temporary setback in the ongoing struggle to affirm parents’ God-given and constitutionally protected right to direct the upbringing and education of their children,” said California Family Council president Jonathan Keller.
Bonta’s threats and legal intimidation amount to little more than “a political gimmick to intimidate school boards,” said Lance Christensen, vice president of education policy and government affairs at the California Policy Center. “Gov. Newsom and other state officials are on a mission to strip parents of their rights and give control over their kids to the government,” he continued. “Bonta is using the power of his office to scare other school boards that are considering adopting parental rights policies. They should not be intimidated.”
“Despite the court’s decision, we stand undeterred by intimidation tactics from legislators, executives, and bureaucrats,” vowed Keller. “This is not just a legal battle; it’s a defining moment for our culture, drawing a line between government overreach and the sacred realm of family.”
Both see the lawsuits as an attempt to blunt the momentum in favor of parents’ rights and pro-family policy in deep-blue California.
Chino Valley affirmed parental rights by a 4-1 vote in July, followed by Murrieta Valley Unified School District and Temecula Valley Unified School District (both in Riverside County), and Anderson Union High School District in Shasta County.
“5 down, 939 to go,” quipped Christensen.
The Orange Unified School District will vote on a similar policy Thursday evening.
Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.
