California Safety Act Would Codify Reckless Disregard for Parental Rights
School district policy prevents staff from sharing information with parents.
That was the message that the principal of East Rockford Middle School gave Dan and Jennifer Mead after they learned that the school had been secretly treating their daughter as a boy—for months.
This line of thinking reveals a host of problems.
For starters, it contradicts both logic and best medical practice. It’s common sense that kids do better when their parents know what’s going on in their lives.
Statements like this also pit children against their parents when, in reality, the vast majority of parents simply want what is best for their children.
And this kind of thinking violates parents’ fundamental right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children.
Unfortunately, East Rockford Middle School is far from the only school to hide information about a child’s gender identity from her parents. Worse, a new law in California expressly prohibits public schools from ensuring that staff notify parents about their child’s gender expression.
The California SAFETY Act harms parents and children
On July 15, 2024, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California Assembly Bill 1955 into law. Misleadingly named the “SAFETY Act,” the law prohibits public schools from respecting the important relationship between children and parents.
The law bans public schools from having policies that ensure parents are notified about a child’s sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.
In other words, schools are prohibited from enacting policies that require school employees to notify parents when a child expresses confusion about his or her gender or asks to be referred to by a new name and pronouns that do not match their sex. This important information could be hidden from parents unless the student says otherwise.
Prior to the passage of this new law, multiple California school districts had enacted policies instructing teachers and staff to inform parents if their children were struggling in school with anything from being bullied to experiencing confusion about their gender. These policies represent the correct balance in the parent-student-teacher relationship by putting parents in the driver’s seat. After all, parents know and love their children best.
But California’s SAFETY Act outlaws these policies, interfering with parents’ right to be informed about certain important matters affecting their child.
‘Social transition’ hidden from parents
Parents like Dan and Jennifer Mead have experienced what it is like to have important information about their child hidden from them. Dan and Jennifer were regularly in contact with their daughter’s middle school to discuss how to work through some recent academic and social struggles. But school staff never told the Meads that the school district was “socially transitioning” their daughter, referring to her by a new name and pronouns that did not match her sex.
In fact, school staff were actively hiding this “social transition” from Dan and Jennifer by removing any reference to the new name and pronouns in documents that the Meads would see. It was only when a staff member inadvertently gave Dan a document that used a male name and masculine pronouns in reference to his daughter that the Meads learned of the school’s dishonesty.
Dan and Jennifer promptly pulled their daughter from the school, and Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a lawsuit on their behalf. Schools can’t hide critical information from parents about their children.
Unfortunately, the California SAFETY Act opens the door for more stories like the Meads’. But one victory that ADF has already won demonstrates that when the government infringes on parental rights, those rights can and should be protected in court.
ADF continues protecting parental rights
When Tammy Fournier’s 12-year-old daughter was struggling with confusion about her gender, Tammy told officials in the Kettle Moraine School District that she wanted to do what she knew was best for her daughter, which was to use her real name and correct pronouns. School officials told Tammy that she had no say in the matter and that they would use an incorrect name and pronouns if her daughter asked them to.
Tammy pulled her daughter from the school, and thankfully, her daughter became more comfortable with her sex and is working toward overcoming the mental health struggles she was facing. But Tammy never should have been forced to remove her daughter from school to reach this positive outcome.
ADF attorneys filed a lawsuit against Kettle Moraine School District on behalf of Tammy and others to defend their parental rights, and in October 2023, a Wisconsin court ruled that the school district's policy was unconstitutional.
There is a reason why God designed families the way he did, and while California’s law is a serious threat to parental rights, Tammy’s case demonstrates that is not too late to protect the parent-child bond from intrusion by the state.
