A coalition of California lawmakers is seeking to ban school district policies requiring teachers to notify parents of their children's gender identity.the Support Academic Futures and Educators for Today’s Youth Act Wednesday. The legislation, if passed, would prohibit school districts from implementing "forced outing policies," as well as prevent districts from retaliating against staff who refuse to share a student's gender identity with their parents.
Teachers should not be the gender police and violate the trust and safety of the students in their classrooms,” Assemblymember Ward said. “Parents should be talking to their children, and the decision for a student to come out to their family members should be on their own terms." The bill follows at least seven California school districts adopting parental notification policies over the last year. California Attorney General Rob Bontathe Chino Valley Unified School District in August over its implementation of such a policy, calling the practice "detrimental to the well-being of LGBTQ+ students." Bonta has also publicly condemned multiple other school districts for their policies, including the Temecula Valley Unified School District.
"The SAFETY Act will allow our teachers to focus on teaching academic skills, not on policing gender identity," he added.of the July school board meeting where Chino Valley approved its parental notification policy after attending to raise concerns over student safety impacts. Chino Valley school board president Sonja Shaw accused Thurmond of "proposing things that pervert children" before he was led away.
Tony Thurmond, I appreciate you being here tremendously, but here's the problem. We're here because of people like you," Shaw told the state superintendent.Community reactions to the parental notifications policies have been largely mixed. Some parents in the Orange Unified School District in Septemberthe practice a "very close parallel" to "trying to segregate one group of students.