The Orange Unified School District is the most recent amongst many schools across California to adopt a new policy that will notify parents when or if their child identifies as transgender. According to reporting from the Los Angeles Times, the 4-0 vote was a result of an emotionally charged board meeting.
During the board meeting, one of the proponents of this policy, Rick Ledesma, the school board president stated that “We believe it is important to clarify communication between the school district and parents and guardians on these important matters pertaining to the mental health and social and emotional issues of their students in order to prevent or reduce potential issues of self-harm.”
The school will notify parents if their child starts identifying as a gender other than what was assigned to them at birth. Additionally, the school will also alert the parents if their child begins using a different name than their legal one (this does not include nicknames). Lastly, if the child uses bathrooms that do not reflect their assigned gender, the parent will be notified.
Madison Miner, another supporter of the policy mentioned that this notification is meant to protect children since children who are transgender are more likely to suffer from self harm and suicide.
“A parent is a child’s best advocate,” Miner said. “If we (the parents) can save children from suicide by bringing their parents alongside them, I think it’s a great idea.”
However, not everyone thinks that the policy has the students’ best interests at heart. Another board member, Kris Erikson, acknowledges that the there are already policies within the school district that revolve around suicide.
“I have three concerns: one is the targeting and discrimination of trans and nonbinary students,” Erikson said. “Two is the high likelihood of expensive litigation that I think will come from this, and three is the blatant government interference in the family unit that this mandates.”
The Orange Unified District is not the first to enact such a policy. California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, recently sued the Chino Valley Unified School District over a very similar policy, which required parents to be notified by the school when their child chooses to change their pronouns or gender.
The attorney general stated that it was a “forced outing” of students and that “it tramples on students’ rights.” The lawsuit itself states that the policy breaches the state’s right of equal protection regardless of gender and sexual orientation while also stripping students’ of their privacy rights.
While some believe that parents have a right to know what is occurring in their child’s life in order to protect them, others agree that such policies discriminate against the LGBTQ+ community by forcing them into environments where they do not feel comfortable or safe. An argument that the opposition has is that children may be forced to return to homes where they are no longer supported or valued because of their gender identity.
Students, too, echo this sentiment. Max Ibarra, a trans teenager who uses they/them pronouns from the Chino Valley Unified School District discussed how these policies do more harm than good. They mentioned that students have resorted to using their deadname, a term that denotes the birth name that children are assigned but no longer identify with.
Ibarra pointed out that, while some students have spaces to go home to, not all children have the privilege of being accepted for who they are.
“They [students] can’t start their new school year by being themselves, because if they do, they will be outed to their families, and there are many cases where that’s not safe,” Ibarra said.
School districts all over the state such as Murrieta Valley Unified, Temecula Valley Unified and Rocklin Unified have all adopted the controversial policy. While certain parents strive to assert their involvement in their children’s lives by advocating for such policies, it is important to note that many of those actually affected by the policies can be harmed by being forced to come out and returning home to environments that may not necessarily be supportive of them.