California's attorney general has warned school districts across the state that policies requiring employees to report transgender students to parents violate the state constitution.
Attorney General Rob Bonta issued a legal warning on Thursday. The report said the policies adopted by several school districts in the Golden State are unconstitutional and “detrimental” to the privacy, safety and well-being of transgender and gender nonconforming students.
“We know what the data shows: 15% of transgender and gender nonconforming youth are being removed from their homes,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. told KCAL last week after the warning was issued on Thursday.
“Another 10% have suffered physical harm from immediate family members,” he added.
Bonta's warning comes amid an ongoing battle between the attorney general and the Chino Valley School District, which announced the policy in July after a 4-1 vote by the school board.
The policy requires staff to notify parents if a child wishes to be called by a different name or pronoun. Whether they request to use the restroom or participate in activities that do not match their natal sex.
The Chino Valley district requires staff to report students even if they have not given permission for the information to be released.
Bonta argued that the policy discriminates against trans students and puts them at risk.
Chino Valley School Board President Sonya Shaw, a vocal supporter of the bill, accused the attorney general of being “obsessed with power.”
“He has shown that he wants to be a parent to our children and is not doing his job of keeping California safe,” Shaw told KCAL. “What is he doing to keep his parents out and keep them safe on campus? It just doesn't make sense.”
Bonta's office said in a warning last week that the ban “targets transgender and gender nonconforming students” after it violated the California Constitution's Equal Protection Clause in three different ways. He emphasized that it was a violation. According to the Sacramento Bee.
“Because gender identity is an aspect of gender, transgender or gender nonconforming individuals constitute a protected class under California's Equal Protection Clause,” the notice states.
Other violations include violations of students' privacy rights, as well as a prohibition on gender discrimination, which points out how “forced curfew policies target specific groups and discriminate against 'only those groups.'” It was
“In short, by singling out transgender and gender nonconforming students and subjecting them to a variety of disadvantageous treatments that put them at risk of harm, forced disclosure policies violate their constitutional rights to equal protection and privacy. “It would also violate legal protections against discrimination under California law,” the warning read.
Bont's office previously cited a heated July 20 school board hearing in which trans students were described as “perverse” and suffering from “mental illness,” and said Bont was “hateful and mentally ill.” The school sued the school district in August to block the policy, claiming that it was a policy that allowed students to “introduce people to the school.”
Shaw further emphasized this policy, characterizing it as a battle for parental rights against invasive liberal politicians seeking to take away parental rights.
“The political cartels continue to play their cards and I think we need to protect our constitutional rights and protect our children together,” she said Thursday.
