Parents and activists have reacted furiously to a California law that seeks to help students change their sex at school without their parents’ knowledge, with one calling the Democrat-backed legislation a “five-alarm fire.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed the nation’s first law that prevents public school districts from requiring staff to notify parents when their children change the pronouns they use in class.
California parents told DailyMail.com the law would encourage more districts to implement their own secret sex-change policies and leave mums and dads unable to trust teachers or even consider switching to private schools.
The question of whether teachers should inform parents when their children change sex at school has become a contentious issue between progressives and conservatives, who say parents should be informed about such a major decision.
“This is a five-alarm fire ethically and legally because it excludes parents from knowing vital information about their own children’s school records,” said Erika Sanzi of the campaign group Parents Defending Education.
Under the law, school districts can no longer pass rules that alert parents when their children change their pronouns in class.
Activists say some LGBTQ+ students live in unwelcoming homes and need protection from their own parents.
‘If a school facilitates a minor’s gender transition without notifying the parents, it is carrying out a psychosocial intervention without parental consent.’
The new law will override policies passed by fewer than a dozen California school boards in Republican-leaning districts that required staff to inform parents about transgender students.
Democratic state officials pushed for the law, saying students have a right to privacy and that some LGBTQ+ students live in unwelcoming homes and need protection from their own parents.
Trans activists say the guidelines are vital as some children need protection from old-fashioned mums and dads who won’t accept their desire to change sex.
But for many parents, they are dangerous and could deny them the opportunity to help their children as they struggle through puberty.
A report by Rasmussen last year’s survey found that 82 percent of California voters supported laws requiring parents to be notified of major changes in a child’s physical, mental or emotional health or academic performance in school.
Newsom spokesman Brandon Richards said the law “helps keep children safe” while allowing families to “have deeply personal conversations” about children’s gender identities.
But Jonathan Zachreson, an advocate of so-called parental notification policies, opposes the law, saying that informing parents about students’ gender changes is “crucial to the well-being of children and to maintaining that trust between schools and parents.”
Wealthy parents will move their children to private schools, he told DailyMail.com. Many others will seek out charter schools that “fly under the radar” and continue to notify parents, he added.
Others will join the exodus of Californians leaving the Golden State, he added, which often means opting for South Texas and more family-friendly policies in nearby Arizona and Texas.
Dr. Erica Anderson, a male-to-female transgender clinical psychologist, warned that California was on a dangerous “slippery slope.”
‘The California legislature decided that teachers know better than parents what is good for children,’ he posted on X.
“And that young people can decide what their parents know.”
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law, which his office says “helps keep children safe” while allowing families to “have deeply personal conversations” about children’s gender identities.
Transgender Californians were among those who took to social media to criticize the new law.
Olivia Garrison, who previously posted on TikTok about her “queer safe space classroom,” admitted to helping students change their gender identity without parents’ knowledge.
Across the United States, parents are clashing with teachers over whether transgender teens can transition in classrooms without their knowledge — and most cases don’t always make it to the principal’s office and often end up in court. Some states have put safeguards in place: In Virginia, a lawmaker is proposing a law to ensure parents are informed. And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has cracked down on teachers’ gender identity with the Parents’ Rights in Education Act.
States across the country have sought to impose bans on gender-affirming care for minors, prohibit transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports, and require schools to inform parents about their children’s trans or nonbinary status.
Some conservative lawmakers in other states have introduced bills with broad language requiring parents to be informed of any changes in their children’s emotional health or well-being.
Erika Sanzi calls the law a “five-alarm fire”
The California law sparked heated clashes in the state legislature, with LGBTQ+ lawmakers saying minors should be able to decide what to tell their own parents, and others highlighting instances of schools trampling on parental rights.
Last year, California mother Jessica Konen settled a lawsuit against the Spreckels Union School District for $100,000 after saying her daughter was “socially transitioned” to a trans boy at her high school.
Konen’s 11-year-old daughter, Alicia, was reportedly told at Buena Vista Middle School in Spreckels that she was upset because she didn’t know “who she really was inside.”
The school allowed the girl to use the boys’ bathroom and use male pronouns in class without her mother’s consent.
Single mother Konen accused teachers of encouraging her daughter to think she was a trans boy when she was at school in 2019, only for the girl to revert to her female persona while learning remotely during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Konen’s attorney, Harmeet Dhillon, executive director and founder of the Center for American Liberty, called the new law “aoutrageous attempt to keep parents in the dark while schools indoctrinate children with radical gender ideology.
In early 2023, a California high school history teacher revealed she had helped students change their gender at school without their parents’ knowledge, saying it was necessary in some cases.
Olivia Garrison, an openly progressive nonbinary person, told the New York Times that she felt her job as a teacher was to “protect children,” “sometimes from their own parents.”
Such cases are becoming more common as teachers are faced with a small but growing number of children who want to change gender at school and particularly difficult ones who do not want their parents to know about it.
On this front line of America’s culture wars, parents, children, teachers and therapists are having to make tough decisions about rising rates of transgenderism, mental health issues, peer pressure and whether affirmation on demand is always the best answer.
But for many parents, they are dangerous and could deny them the opportunity to help their children as they struggle through puberty.
DailyMail.com has spoken to several parents of children who identify as transgender. Many are concerned that their children have been influenced to transition by classmates, TikTok influencers or teachers and school counsellors who want to make their voices heard.
Some do not believe their children are truly transgender and are trying to put off irreversible measures such as puberty blockers or surgery. Many said their child instead had mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and autism.