CV NEWS FEED // Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta reportedly may have violated a federal judge’s preliminary ruling striking down a school’s pro-“trans” policy.
Bonta on Tuesday sent a letter to school districts across the state directing them “to adopt policies that allow them to hide a student’s claimed transgender identity from parents or guardians,” The Daily Signal’s Tyler O’Neil reported.
“All California school districts are bound by a duty of care to protect the students they educate,” Bonta wrote in his letter:
By forcing disclosure of a transgender or gender nonconforming student’s gender expression or gender identity—even against a student’s wishes, and with no exception for situations involving a potential threat of parental harm or violence—forced disclosure policies not only violate transgender and gender nonconforming students’ rights to equal protection, nondiscrimination and privacy, but they risk breaching the duty of care school districts owe to these and all students.
The letter came just weeks after federal District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez struck down a southern California school district’s policy that banned parental notification of so-called “trans” students, deeming that it violated the constitution.
O’Neil wrote that earlier this month, Benitez
granted a preliminary injunction preventing Escondido Union School District from punishing teachers Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West if they notified parents about a child’s claimed transgender identity.
The Escondido school district’s policy mandates that teachers and school staff will immediately accept a student’s claimed transgender identity and hide it from parents or guardians unless the student consents to notifying them.
Bonta claimed that county court Judge Tom Garza’s earlier ruling, which temporarily struck down a Chino Valley Unified School District’s pro-parent policy, allowed the attorney general to encourage schools to forbid parental notification. The temporary restraining order was in response to a lawsuit Bonta filed against the school district in late August.
Garza and Benitez’s conflicting rulings were issued just eight days apart.
However, Thomas More Society Special Counsel Paul Jonna disagreed with the attorney general’s reasoning.
“By suggesting that this Chino ruling is not impacted by this federal court order, [Bonta] is basically ignoring what the federal judge said and choosing to advise state officials to continue to enforce these policies that a federal judge has said are likely unconstitutional,” the attorney told The Daily Signal.
“They are telling school officials to continue enforcing these policies that a federal judge has told us likely violate the U.S. Constitution,” Jonna added. “That risks subjecting the state and school districts to massive liability in the form of attorneys fees.”
Read more on the fight for parents’ rights in California:
Chino Valley Unified School District Fights Back
Judge Sides With California AG, Temporarily Stops School’s Pro-Parent Policy
Victory: CA School Awards Settlement to Mom After ‘Transitioning’ Daughter
CA School Districts Not Giving Up on Pro-Parent Policies Despite Dem AG’s Lawsuit
California AG Files Lawsuit Against Pro-Parent Policy
